Last semis slot at stake

MANILA, Philippines — One semifinal slot, two teams that are willing to do whatever it takes – even laboring beyond the 48-minute regulation play again – to lay their hands on it.

Fourth-ranked Phoenix, the only one among the Top 4 yet to land a seat in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup semis, and No. 5 Meralco, the only one capable of crashing the party of the elite squads with win-once incentives, engage in a death battle today.

The Fuel Masters and Bolts go at it one last time at 6:30 p.m. at the MOA Arena with top seed Magnolia as a very interested kibitzer.

The Hotshots blitzed their way to the best-of-five series after putting away No. 8 TNT last Wednesday, 109-94. The two other twice-to-beat teams, No. 2 San Miguel Beer and No. 3 Barangay Ginebra, also advanced on one take via closeouts of No. 7 Rain or Shine, 127-122, and No. 6 NorthPort, 106-93, respectively, Friday.

That left Phoenix hard-pressed to follow suit, albeit on a longer route, after yielding to Meralco in a draining triple-overtime encounter the first time around, 107-116.

“That’s why you work hard in the eliminations to get the twice-to-beat advantage so you have that luxury. If you don’t get it on the first try, you have another chance to get it. And there’s another opportunity for us to get to the semis on Sunday,” said Phoenix coach Jamike Jarin.

Meralco counterpart Luigi Trillo expects another cutthroat competition against the Fuel Masters.

“It’s going to come down to that again – the aggressive team is going to win. Sa akin, looking at it, we have an opportunity to make the semis and we deserve to be there, too,” said Trillo, whose crew is looking to replicate the team’s previous quarterfinals upsets of fourth seeds SMB in the 2020 Philippine Cup bubble and Ginebra in last season’s All-Filipino.