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With their season on the line, the M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala-Cebu Ninos laced up their work boots and dug deep into their bag of defensive tricks to beat the Misamis Oriental Meteors, 78-75 in last night?s Game 2 to tie their best-of-five championship series at 1-1 in the Tournament of the Philippines finals at the Cebu Coliseum.
The Ninos lost Game 1, 87-90, to the Meteors Tuesday night with three former University of the Visayas standouts torching them for a combined 61 points. With the possibility of a 0-2 hole looming on the horizon, the Ninos harrassed the vaunted Meteors trio of Patrick Cabahug, Neil Raneses and Reed Juntilla into just 33 markers in Game 2 and got some impressive performances from two reserves to snatch the close victory.
Nat Cruz, the fiery Ninos forward who has an axe to grind with the Meteors following his tussle with them during the MisOr leg earlier in the tournament, put up 14 points while reserve wingman Mark Magsumbol scored 12 in addition to his pesky defense on Cabahug and Juntilla that spelled the difference in the closely-fought match.
The Ninos, two-time champions of the Liga Pilipinas, dominated the first three periods after an 8-0 run gave them a, 22-12 lead in the first canto while another 9-2 salvo put them ahead by nine, 39-30, at halftime. They eventually extended their lead to a high of 15, 55-40, after a three-pointer by Cruz with 4:50 left in the third stanza.
But the Meteors, champions of the Liga's 2nd conference at the expense of the Ninos, cut the lead down to three, 57-60, behind an 11-0 run authored by Juntilla and Eder Saldua. The two teams went back and forth down the stretch with Cabahug hitting one improbable three-pointer after another while the Ninos countered with timely hits from Bruce Dacia and Marlon Basco.
Cabahug's last trifecta pulled the Meteors to within one, 75-76, with 1:04 left in the game and he actually had a chance to put his team in front on their next possession but was stripped by Magsumbol. A free-throw by Stephen Padilla then gave the Ninos a 77-75 advantage and a missed baseline jumper by Raneses on the Meteors? next possession stalled the latter?s attempt to tie the count.
Another free-throw by Dacia pegged the final count as Juntilla?s prayer-packed, half-court heave rimmed out.
Cabahug had 19 points but Juntilla and Raneses managed just nine and five points, respectively.
Cebu though is not yet out of the woods as they now head over to Cagayan de Oro City for Games 3 and 4 starting tomorrow
