MANILA, Philippines — Chito Victolero can finally heave a sigh of relief as Magnolia chalked up its first win for the PBA Season 49 Governors' Cup.

After allowing Meralco to score nearly a hundred points in its 94-99 loss during the season-opening game last week, Magnolia made the necessary adjustment and getting back to its identity of playing defense first, enabling the Hotshots to score a 105-93 triumph on Friday night.

The Hotshots' choking defense muzzled Converge import Scotty Hopson and Alec Stockton, the FiberXers' two top gunners in the team's explosive season debut that saw them squash the Terrafirma Dyip to pulp, 125-93 a few days ago.

That game saw Hopson erupt for 46 points, highlighted by a perfect 3-of-3 from the four-point zone; while Stockton scattered 21 markers. The two alone combined for 25 points in Converge's franchise-best 47 points in the third quarter that enabled the team to pull away from a tight first half.

"We want them (FiberXers) to be limited below 100 points. Our goal is 92, and I think we did a good job on the defensive end," said Victolero after the game.

Victolero though noted that Magnolia fell into a little bit of complacency since enjoying its largest lead at 21 points, allowing Converge to come to within 93-98 on the stretch of its spirited 13-1 run.

"But maybe, during the last five minutes, we kind of relaxed. And that's something we will need to address because we can't play that way," he stressed. "We need to be consistent on our defense because we feel we could have limited them below 90 points if we just did better in the end."

Nonetheless, the Magnolia mentor said they will take the way any day and try to build on that.

Defensively, Magnolia did its job well after holding Hopson down to just 26 points, while Stockton only had three.

Magnolia will take a few days off before swinging back to action this coming Thursday versus TNT.

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