DOWN seven points with a little over a minute left last night, Magnolia harassed Converge reserve playmaker Aljun Melecio from the backcourt in a last-ditch effort to pull off a miracle, but it was not meant to be.

The FiberXers held their ground until the Hotshots faded in a match that had big repercussions heading into the playoffs.

Converge turned back Magnolia 89-82 for their fourth straight win and gained the No. 3 slot in Group A of the quarterfinals of the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.

The 5-foot-8 Melecio zoomed past the pressing defense of the Hotshots’ Jerrick Balanza and Joseph Eriobu and calmly set up the table for the FiberXers’ offensive attack.

In an anticlimactic sequence, Melecio drove hard to the basket and kicked out a pass to the wide-open Keith Zalvidar from the left wing, but the latter shot an airball that would normally draw the ire of the team’s coaches.

But not for a Converge crew that did an encore to a 105-97 triumph over Meralco six days back and wound up its group phase campaign with a 6-4 card to forge a best-of-5 Last Eight showdown with San Miguel Beer, the other group’s second-ranked team which ended with a similar 6-4 mark.

Magnolia came off a 110-94 drubbing of NorthPort last Friday despite playing all-Filipino since import Shabazz Muhammad is nursing a swollen knee and ended with a 5-5 slate.

The Hotshots take on the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, the Group A pacesetter.

Despite advancing to the quarterfinals, FiberXers interim coach Franco Atienza is convinced his charges are far from done.

“We chopped off our goals in little parts. The first one was to make the quarterfinals and right now we somehow got that. But it doesn’t end here. So, next we will play in the playoffs. Medyo malaking challenge ang San Miguel on the other side,” Atienza said. “But we wanna build on what we are doing right. We are riding on a four-game winning streak.

“We want to get all the learnings from those wins. We finished the eliminations strong and hopefully we carry them over—all the good things we did, we have to do better and correct whatever mistakes we made and for a long time, nakapasok din kami sa playoffs,” he added.

Reinforcement Jalen Jones notched a game-high 27 points, on top of 12 rebounds and four assists for Converge while Justin Arana backed him up with a similar double-double of 12 markers and 12 boards.

Alec Stockton and Schonny Winston also had 10 points each as the FiberXers avenged a 93-105 setback to the Hotshots when they first met last Aug. 23.

Atienza’s quint fell 41-50 at the half but battled back behind King Caralipio, Jones, Arana, and Bryan Santos to grab a 73-68 edge heading into the fourth canto.

A Melecio jumper pushed Converge’s lead to as much as 89-77 at the 3:15 mark of the fourth.

Calvin Abueva and rookie Peter Alfaro III scored 11 points apiece for Magnolia. Now the FiberXers will be tested—if they can upstage the mighty Beermen.