Magnolia Hotshots’ Tyler Bey defends San Miguel Beermen’s Bennie Boatwright within the PBA Finals Game 4. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—Identical to that, Magnolia is back in the sport and the Hotshots have Tyler Bey’s dedication on defense largely to thank for that.
After their 96-85 victory over the Beermen in Game 4 that tied the PBA Commissioner’s Finals to 2-2, Magnolia coach Chito Victolero revealed that Bey personally asked to defend Boatwright prior to now two games, which resulted in two crucial wins for the squad.
PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals against San Miguel and the Hotshots have on defense to thank for because the series reached a fever pitch at two games a chunk.
Magnolia’s Tyler Bey and coach Chito Victolero after their Game 4 win within the #PBAFinals over San Miguel.
The series is now tied at 2-2. Game 5 on Sunday. | @MeloFuertesINQ pic.twitter.com/8AEN8nN73f
— INQUIRER Sports (@INQUIRERSports) February 9, 2024
“T. Bey embraced that matchup with Bennie. He’s a really smart player, he realized that he can play each ends of the ground but an important thing is he played good defense on Boatwright. He’s the one who asked for that,” told Victolero.
“Again, we are able to’t stop Bennie but we’ll attempt to limit his scoring and activity on the ground.”
Friday saw Boatwright record his conference-low production in scoring, registering just 16 points to go together with 14 rebounds.
To a standard player, that could be a fantastic stat line. But Boatwright isn’t just any swingman. He’s a Beerman who’s averaging 33.8 points an evening for San Miguel.
Bey expected Boatwright to return out aggressive, so he did what any smart player would do and matched his furiousness on the court.
Bey outworked Boatwright in all facets of the sport after dropping 26 points, 12 rebounds and 6 steals and he did all of it in an efficient 50 percent field goal shooting clip.
“I knew he was going to return out more aggressive than Game 3, of course. I don’t know what he went for within the last game but I understand it wasn’t nearly as good but for me I’m just stepping as much as the challenge. I do know that he’ll come out aggressive every game, especially after that loss. I knew I gotta step up this game in a much larger way,” said the previous Dallas Maverick.
“We talked about being lionhearted and the entire team stepped up. I wasn’t the one guy guarding him but my teammates helped me as well so credit to them,” added Bey.
Bey and Magnolia look to take a commanding 3-2 series lead over San Miguel on Sunday at the identical venue.
