Two former San Beda Red Lions sizzled as the NLEX Road Warriors stunned the second seeded Meralco Bolts, 81-80, to force a sudden death playoff in the 2021 PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday at the DHVSU Gym in Bacolor, Pampanga.
Calvin Oftana struck with the game-winning layup, while Anthony Semerad came up with another good performance to help the Road Warriors stay in contention for a seat in the semifinals.
The Road Warriors, who needed to beat the Bolts twice to get into the semifinals, scored with six seconds left off Jericho Cruz’s assist.
After that, a block by JR Quinahan with two ticks left on Cliff Hodge’s triple denied the win-once Bolts a chance to get an outright semifinals qualification seat.
“We haven’t achieved anything yet. We’re just prolonging the series. We’ll see what happens on Friday,” said Warriors' coach Yeng Guiao.
The opportunity to win the game came in the Road Warriors' favor when Mac Belo missed both his free throws for the Bolts with 12 seconds remaining, before Oftana came through with the game winner.
Semerad led NLEX with 23 points, his highest output since his career-high 24 on Aug. 14, 2016.
The last time Semerad score this high, he was involved in a 126-123 double overtime win over Meralco in the Commissioners' Cup when he was still with GlobalPort.
Oftana and Don Trollano finished with 12 apiece, while Jericho Cruz added 10.
Allein Maliksi scored a game-high 16 to lead Meralco.
A layup with 4:36 left in the third canto from Semerad allowed the Road Warriors to take their biggest edge at 59-50.