The debuting player Shabazz Muhammad did not also survive the dashing passion of the Hotshots to secure a quarterfinals berth.

“Gusto namin na going into the playoffs, we have that proper mindset,” said Magnolia coach Chito Victolero.

Thanks to Paul Lee’s eight points consecutive run, Magnolia was able to keep the distance from San Miguel in the second quarter, 46-37 after having a skin-skin match.

The second half of the game die-away in a blink of an eye with Magnolia having the advantage of 13 points and fleeing with 19 points at the end of the third quarter.

San Miguel tried to retaliate as Muhammad tried to break in with his all-time score of 27 boards and 17 rebounds, but was not enough to give the win to his team.

Besides Lee, Mike Harris joined the domination followed by the double digits contribution of Mark Barroca and Aris Dionisio to send the Hotshots into 7-1 win-loss standing.

“We just tried to bounce back hard on this game. It’s a character game for us,” coach Victolero explained.

“Ang pinagusapan namin is to try to move forward. We know that we had a bad start in our last game. Kinapos kami. Pero in this game, we talked about how we would start strong and finish stronger.”

The scores:

Magnolia 104 – Lee 26, Harris 26, Barroca 12, Dionisio 12, Jalalon 10, Sangalang 9, Corpuz 4, Wong 3, Reavis 2, Ahanmisi 0, Escoto 0

San Miguel 87 – Muhammad 27, Perez 18, Manuel 16, Lassiter 11, Fajardo 6, Tautuaa 5, Romeo 4, Enciso 0, Ross 0, Brondial 0.

Quarters: 25-23; 57-44; 81-62; 104-87