The beast has been unleashed anew.
Calvin Abueva scored 15 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter as he steadied the ship for Magnolia following the injury of import Nick Rakocevic to hack out a pulsating 94-92 victory in the 2022 PBA Commissioner's Cup on Wednesday, Oct. 5
Abueva, hampered by foul trouble in the first three quarters, took charge in the final frame especially after Rakocevic went down with an apparent knee injury following a collision with teammate Jack Corpuz with 6:40 left in the ball game to help the Hotshots notch their third straight win and join the Bay Area Dragons atop the standings.
The 6-foot-3 forward even scored a huge layup that shoved the Hotshots ahead by two, 92-90, with 32 seconds left but Cameron Oliver answered back on the other end with a putback off his own miss to tie the game once again.
Paul Lee, though, fished a foul on Calvin Oftana, sending him to the foul line with four seconds to go. The veteran point guard then coolly sank the free throws to put Magnolia ahead once again. TNT had the final shot in the end game but RR Pogoy couldn’t launch a last second heave from the three-point line as the buzzer sounded.
Abueva added nine rebounds to his output while Rakocevic tallied 22 points and 15 rebounds before going down with the injury. Lee was also solid with 16 points while Marc Barroca added 13 points and five assists.
Cameron Oliver proved exactly why he’s one of the Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player candidates, putting up 43 points while hauling down 17 rebounds. His efforts, however, went futile as TNT surrendered a 13-point lead.
It also didn’t help that the Tropang Giga missed the services of the likes of Jayson Castro, Mikey Williams and Glenn Khobuntin due to injuries and Poy Erram who served his suspension over his F2 infraction in Game 7 of the Philippine Cup Finals against San Miguel Beer.
Frustration even erupted after the game as TNT head coach Chot Reyes confronted the table officials and argued the fouls called against his team late in the game. He was then pacified by his assistant coaches and PBA technical director Eric Castro.