Warriors shackle Hotshots, tie series

MANILA, Philippines — NLEX unleashed a 14-0 attack in its return from the halftime break and sustained an explosive performance through the final half to blast a suddenly erratic Magnolia side, 91-79, and force a tie after four games of their PBA Philippine Cup best-of-seven semifinal playoff at the MOA Arena last night.

The Road Warriors opened a 55-39 spread on that fiery start in the third period then banked on the efforts of Kiefer Ravena, Kevin Alas, JR Quiñahan and Larry Fonacier in keeping the Hotshots at bay the rest of the way.

Thus, coach Yeng Guiao and his troops are back on track for a possible first finals stint as they avoided falling to a deep 1-3 hole in the series.

The two teams break their 2-2 deadlock at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow over at the Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo.

 “Even with Marc Pingris not playing, we’re still the underdogs. The experience they’ve gained playing the semifinals as many as they had is very valuable. We don’t have that, that’s why just to tie is a big morale victory for us,” said the NLEX coach.

“It means there will be a Game Six. We split the next two games, and there would be a Game Seven. We would take that chance and we would be happy whatever the result would be,” Guiao also said.

Ravena top scored with 20 points that went with five rebounds and three assists while Quiñahan, Alas and Fonacier chipped in 14, 13 and 10 markers, respectively, for the Road Warriors who pounced on the big dip in the Hotshots’ game from their 106-99 victory in Game Three.

“We made adjustments that focused on the two guys (Ian Sangalang and Paul Lee) that gave us a hard time the last time. They still got good numbers, and it just showed how good they are,” said Ravena.

In the end, the big disparity in shooting proved to be the big key in NLEX stopping Magnolia’s two-game run in the series.

The Road Warriors hit at a 52-percent clip (36-68) as against the Hotshots’ 36-percent shooting (28-of-76).

The Hotshots shot badly at the start of the second half, allowing the Road Warriors to break free from a tight 41-39 count at the start of the third.

Magnolia was without a field-goal basket in the third period until Aldrech Ramos nailed a trey to cut their deficit to 10, 48-58, with just five minutes to go in the quarter.

Sangalang came through with 15 points and 14 rebounds, but the rest of the Magnolia team were effectively neutralized.