Jay R. Gotera Saudi Gazette MANILA – The Meralco Bolts grabbed the last ticket to the semifinal round, knocking out the Powerade Tigers, 94-86, Wednesday night at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum. Meralco (4-5) thus joined Rain or Shine (8-1), B-Meg (6-3), Talk N Text (5-4), Barangay Ginebra (5-4) and Petron Blaze (5-4) in the single round-robin semifinal round which begins Friday. The teams will carry over their win-loss record from the elimination round. Fatigue took its toll on the Tigers who survived a hard-fought match against against the Barako Bull Energy less than 24 hours before Wednesday night's game. The Bolts and the Tigers engaged in furious exchanges in the first half and early in the third quarter. But the Bolts starting pulling away, going up 69-60 at the end of the third quarter and extending their lead to 76-63 early in the fourth quarter after a four-point play by Mark Macapagal. The Tigers tried to claw their way back with Omar Sneed's triple closing the gap at 86-90, with 1:32 left. But his Meralco counterpart Mario West countered with a basket to make it a six-point game, 92-86, as the Tigers collapsed. The Bolts will just have one day of rest as they go up against the Barangay Ginebra Kings on Friday while the league-leading Rain or Shine Elasto Painters tangle with the defending champion Petron Blaze Boosters in the nightcap. Earlier on Tuesday night, the Powerade Tigers eliminated the Barako Bull Energy, 99-93, in their knockout game despite their leading scorer Gary David playing only the first 11 minutes of the game.because of an ankle injury. Josh Vanlandingham stepped up big-time for the Tigers, finishing with 18 points, including four triples. Vanlandingham's heroics complemented the explosiveness of Omar Sneed who finished with 24 points. With his ankle already hurting, David was still able to score all of his 13 points in the first quarter before being forced to the bench as the pain became unbearable. LeRoy Hickerson and Danny Seigle led Barako Bull with 20 points each. One of the Barako Bull players did not take the loss lightly. In a comment made on Twitter, a frustrated Don Allado blasted the entire league. “PBA games are fixed. They control who is in and who is out. It's a disgrace to be in this league,” he twitted. There were actually several missed calls during the game, which led to the suspension of a referee for the rest of the season. Allado's comments infuriated PBA commissioner Chito Salud who threatened severe punishment on the Barako Bull center. “He is certainly way out of line,” Salud said Wednesday. “He is indicting not just the game officials, but the entire organization and membership of the league, his co-players and team officials alike. This is a serious accusation, and I don't intend to take it lightly.”
