The Phoenix Fuel Masters clinched a playoff berth on Friday with a come-from-behind 105-101 victory over the Meralco Bolts. But, at halftime, a win looked far out of reach as Meralco outplayed Phoenix to take a 10-point lead into intermission.
Then, the Fuel Masters came out blazing in the second half, outscoring the Bolts 32-24 in the third before ultimately completing the rally with a 31-25 fourth quarter. It turns out, that was Phoenix responding to some fiery words from its coach, Charles Tiu, who acknowledged that some sweet nothings may have been said at halftime.
“At the half, we challenged the team that this is not the team that we know. We reminded them of our past failures. A lot of not so pleasant words were probably said at the half and basically challenging them not to be soft, not to be weak,” Tiu admitted in the postgame presser of Friday’s contest at the Ynares Center in Antipolo. “We knew Meralco had to win this or they’ll be eliminated. We were acting like it wasn’t an elimination game for us. We told them we don’t want to have to win against Ginebra to make the playoffs…”
Marcellus Earlington Sparks the Fuel Masters
One reason Phoenix rose to the occasion in the second half was import Marcellus Earlington taking over in the fourth after struggling for only 6 points in the first three quarters.
“It was big that Celis [Earlington] was able to find his groove in the fourth quarter,” Tiu acknowledged. “He made some big shots—those three-pointers and the bully ball kind of worked. Probably took him some time to find his groove. He looked a little bit out of it to start the game, but once he got going, I kept telling him in the game he’ll make shots when it would matter, and true enough he did.”
Earlington certainly did. The burly forward scored 14 of his 20 in the fourth, including a pair of triples—one that made it 84-80 for Phoenix and another that gave the Fuel Masters a 99-91 lead at the 3:05 mark. That nine-point bubble proved enough in the end as Phoenix fended off Meralco’s final push.
It also towed the Fuel Masters to the PBA Governors’ Cup playoffs.
