Magnolia gave Columbian Dyip a rude awakening.
The Hotshots handed the Dyip a reality check as they didn’t allow any upset threat, imposing their will from start to finish for a lopsided 126-101 rout—their second straight win in the 2018 Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last night.
In his penultimate game for Magnolia, Vernon Macklin made sure to help his team gain another victory, scoring all of his 19 points, on 87-percent shooting, in the first half to power the Hotshots to their decisive hot start.
Macklin is bound to leave Magnolia for greener pastures to play in China with a guaranteed contract. He still has a game to play for the Hotshots before bidding them goodbye.
As a result, Magnolia improved to 2-1 to put itself in the upper echelon after dropping its initial assignment, while Columbian Dyip dropped to an even 3-3 slate as they failed to rack up two wins in a row.
Quickly gaining steam, Magnolia didn’t waste any time as it ran Columbian Dyip off the building with a blistering 24-10 blast in the first seven minutes of play.
After a few more minutes, it was already out of hand as the Hotshots further maximized their hot start to end the first quarter carrying a gigantic 37-18 cushion.
It only got worse for the Dyip in the second quarter as the Hotshots, like a well-oiled machine, mercilessly kept pounding to put the game to rest by building an even insurmountable advantage of 29 points, 72-43, at the half.
Magnolia astonishingly shot 67 percent from the floor in the first 24 minutes on its way to an amazing offensive display. Its 72 first-half points is the most scored by a team in a half this season thus far.
Like Macklin, the veteran backcourt duo of Mark Barroca and Paul Lee were already in twin digits at the turn, having 12 and 10 markers, respectively by halftime.
Barroca and Lee finished with 17 points each, while Ian Sangalang had 18 points of his own for the Hotshots.
Jio Jalalon’s lay-up with 8:11 remaining gave Magnolia its largest lead of 38, 111-73.
Aside from import John Field, who scored 22 points and 19 rebounds for a double-double, Columbian hardly got any production from its locals.
The Dyip never even got the chance to at the very least come within striking distance as the Hotshots never gave an inch.