Magnolia prevails over Ginebra in highly-anticipated ‘Manila Clasico’

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

The Magnolia Hotshots found the perfect timing to get out of their slump after shocking the Brgy. Ginebra San Miguel, 102-92, in their highly-anticipated ‘Manila Clasico’ duel since the PBA restarted.

Ginebra was all over Magnolia the first three quarters after Prince Caperal and Stanley Pringle continued to shoot the ball well and negate the tight defense thrown by head coach Chito Victolero.

Up late in the third, 72-64, coach Tim Cone and the rest of Ginebra found themselves in deep trouble after Paul Lee and the rest of the Magnolia backcourt started to catch fire and eventually take the lead away from them.

The Hotshots continued their hot shooting into the final frame to outscore Ginebra, 25-14 in the quarter.

Jackson Corpuz played big for Magnolia and embraced his match-up against Japeth Aguilar and Caperal, to finish the game with 20 points and six rebounds.

“This was a breakout game for us because we’re in a do-or-die situation because we’re 1-4 and we need to bounce back, it just so happened that we faced Ginebra,” said coach Victolero.