FOILED in their first four cracks at the quarterfinals spot, the NLEX Road Warriors finally made it in their last shot at it, surviving a near endgame foldup and squeezing through, 76-72, versus the Barangay Ginebra Kings Sunday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The Road Warriors endured a long scoreless spell in the fourth quarter and found a big break on a Ginebra throw-in error in the dying seconds as NLEX escaped and sneaked into the PBA Philippine Cup playoffs as the sixth seed.
Coach Frankie Lim's chargers avoided a knockout game for the last playoff spot and instead arranged a best-of-three quarterfinals showdown with the Meralco Bolts.
At the end of the one-round-robin elimination phase, Ginebra (7-4), despite the loss, finished second behind top notcher San Miguel Beer (10-1).
NLEX, with the win, forged a five-way logjam at 6-5 with Meralco, TNT, Rain or Shine and Magnolia.
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After the application of the quotient tiebreak, the Bolts, the Tropang Giga, the Elasto Painters, the Road Warriors and the Hotshots finished in such order.
NorthPort and Terrafirma, tied at 5-6, figure in a knockout game to determine the eighth seed which plays top seed San Miguel in the quarters.
The other pairings pit Ginebra (with twice-to-beat advantage) versus Magnolia, Meralco opposite NLEX (best-of-three) and TNT against Rain or Shine (best-of-three).
The Road Warriors found a big relief on their escape versus the Kings despite being held to three points in the last eight minutes of the contest.
From 12 down, the Kings came to within one at 72-73 on an 11-to-nothing roll by Japeth Aguilar, Stanley Pringle and Maverick Ahanmisi.
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After a split from the stripe by Baser Amer, the Kings even had a chance to tie or pull ahead but bungled it on an inbounding error by Von Pessumal.
Richie Rodger sealed the deal with two free throws with 1.1 left.
Robert Bolick showed the way for the Road Warriors with 25 points on top of eight assists and six rebounds as Rodger finished with 11 markers, six boards and two dole-outs.
Ginebra center/forward Christian Standhardinger had good all-around numbers with 19 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists despite sitting out the closing minutes.
Aguilar and Ahanmisi chipped in 15 and 14 points, respectively.(SB)
The Scores:
NLEX 76 - Bolick 25, Rodger 11, Herndon 9, Miranda 8, Semerad 8, Amer 7, Anthony 4, Marcelo 4, Fajardo 0, Valdez 0, Taha 0.
GINEBRA 72 -Standhardinger 19, J.Aguilar 15, Ahanmisi 14, Pringle 7, Cu 5, Thompson 4, Tenorio 2, Pessumal 2, Onwubere 2, David 0, Pinto 0, Murrell 0.
QUARTERS: 23-16, 35-32, 59-54, 76-72
