In a battle of sister companies, the Meralco Bolts used an all-around offensive contribution from its roster to crush the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters, 119-85, held at the Mall of Asia Arena.
From the opening tip, it was Meralco who came up firing from all cylinders, as they limited the Texters to four quiet points in the first eight minutes of the match. The Texters played with no rhythm during the opening period, and they failed to convert on successive baskets. In Meralco’s side however, all things started to click as they built their first double-digit lead at 17-6.
A Ranidel De Ocampo triple sliced the lead down to eight at 25-17 in the start of the second period. Unfortunately for the Texters, this was the closest they could reach against the sizzling offense Meralco put up in the quarter. Afterwards, the Bolts built a 15-8 scoring run to further extend their gap with Andre Emmett connecting on his jumpers during the period. Furthermore, Talk ‘N Text kept in pace in scoring as they tallied their highest scoring quarter of the match with 34, but Meralco was better with 38.
The imports tried to jump start a TNT rally in the third period starting with their defense. Despite stops put up in the early moments, the two had a hard time getting their groove offensively, as they were still struggling in shooting. The Texters outscored their counterparts 14-10 to trim the lead to ten points, but this was quickly responded by Seiya Ando and company. Meralco pounded them with pressure defense as they had steals that led to transition points in their part. They would still win the quarter in scoring, as they limited TNT to four points in the last five minutes of the period.
The fourth quarter was a replay of the second quarter, wherein Sean Anthony started piling up the points with his long-distance sniping. The offensive firepower was maintained by the Bolts as they ballooned the lead to as high as 35 at one points. With the final score just to be settled, they used 36 fourth quarter points to ice the game against the stunned Tropang Texters squad, who had lost their worst game of the conference so far.
Emmett led all scorers with 36 points, including a perfect six-of-six shooting from downtown. Anthony added 24 points, 12 boards, and dished out six assists in his stellar outing. Three more Bolts ended up in double-digit scoring.
Steffphon Pettigrew led TNT with 21 markers and 13 rebounds. However, they shot a dismal 41% compared to Meralco’s 57%. In addition, the Bolts had more assists, 21-11 and committed less turnovers, 9-16.
Meralco’s next game will be up against the Alaska Aces on June 9 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. On the other hand, Talk ‘N Text sets up match against Rain or Shine in a finals rematch from last conference’s finals.
Meralco improves to a 4-3 record and now holds a solo third spot behind four teams while Talk ‘N Text drops to a 3-3 slate.
The scores:
Meralco(119) – Emmett 36, Anthony 24, Dillinger 14, David 12, Cortez 11, Nabong 8, Hodge 7, Ando 5, Ildefonso 2, Atkins 0, Buenafe 0, Caram 0, Guevarra 0
Talk ‘N Text(85) – Pettigrew 21, Castro 16, De Ocampo 14, Carey 10, Ganuelas-Rosser 8, Fonacier 6, Daghles 6, Williams 4, Washington 0, Labagala 0, Espiritu 0
Quarterscores: 23-15, 61-49, 83-69, 119-85
