By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
THE season-opening PBA Philippine Cup hits the championship phase beginning today with familiar foes San Miguel Beermen and Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok getting their best-of-seven series going with Game One at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
A rematch of last year’s finals joust, the Beermen and the Hotshots are out to see their respective causes through with the former seeking to claim their fifth straight Philippine Basketball Association All-Filipino title and the latter looking to win back-to-back PBA titles after winning the previous conference.
In the 2017-18 Philippine Cup Finals, San Miguel won the title in five games, 4-1, punctuated by a 108-99 double-overtime victory in the clincher.
The Beermen made it to their fifth straight finals appearance by besting the TNT KaTropa in the quarterfinals and the top-seeds Phoenix Pulse Fuel Masters in the semifinals.
Before those, San Miguel bucked early struggles in the elimination round to wind up at the fifth spot with a 6-5 record.
Magnolia hotshots also had it rough early in the eliminations, opening its campaign 0-3 and needing to win five of its last six matches to make its way to the next round.
It also fell behind in its best-of-three quarterfinal match with the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings and in the best-of-seven semifinals with the second-seeded Rain or Shine Elasto Painters but in both times they were able to rally back and win.
While they got the better of the Hotshots in last year’s finals, San Miguel coach Leo Austria said they are expecting a much-improved Magnolia squad in their championship re-engagement.
“Magnolia has gained a lot of experience since we last met them in the finals. They won the championship last conference,” the San Miguel coach said during Monday’s press conference for the about-to-start finals. Adding, “They are very competitive and we expect this to be a tough series.”
For Magnolia, it sees itself as an underdog in the series but said it would not stop it from going for it and fighting it out with the defending champions.
“We will come in prepared for the finals despite the short turnaround. We know we’re the underdogs in this series but that’s our story since the start of the conference. We will just keep fighting,” said Hotshots coach Chito Victolero, whose wards secured their finals spot over Rain or Shine only last Sunday in Game Seven of their semifinal tiff.
In their lone encounter this conference on Feb. 10, the Beermen defeated the Hotshots, 113-92.
San Miguel used a strong start and finish to go on top of Magnolia in said match.
Arwind Santos led the Beermen in the victory with 29 points with Terrence Romeo and June Mar Fajardo also producing big numbers of 23 and 22 points, respectively.
Ian Sangalang was the high point man for the Hotshots with 19 markers and Paul Lee finishing with 16.
Game One of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals is set for 7 p.m.