The monkey is finally off of Meralco’s back
The momentum gained by the Meralco Bolts after a surprising finals run during the 2016 Governors Cup ended for naught in the first conference of 2017. Instead of piling up wins, the Bolts collected losses left and right, accumulating six straight losses entering Friday afternoon’s match-up against Rain or Shine.
But the young Meralco Bolts were able to turn things around, stunning the Elato Painters, 82-72, to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. Leading the Bolts was Chris Newsome, who scored 13 of his game-high 19 markers during the third frame that bucked any comeback attempt Rain or Shine tried to pull off.
“It’s really big for us because the mood in the locker room is pretty heavy whenever you’re losing, especially six straight games. We try to stay positive and we really have nothing to lose and everything to gain, that’s kinda the approach that we took today,” the high-flying 26-year-old said.
“Focus on the things that we need to improve on, whether the rest of the conference or next conference, it’s a long season so we don’t just wanna shut down and let everything that we’ve done go to waste. We just want to keep building and keep improving.”
For last season’s Rookie of the Year, the effects of not winning for a month and five days took its toll on them. And with all the write-ups that are written about them and the criticism they are receiving from the fans, they only had no one but themselves as their support system.
“We try to give each other confidence. Whoever coach puts in we try to give them confidence. That’s the opportunity to step up no matter who it is, with coach Norman’s system if you’re producing and you’re helping the team then you’re gonna stay on the floor and that’s how we approach every game,” the second-year player said as the Bolts had four players reach double-figures.
“The other guys they just have to be ready whenever their name is called. It’s hard but it’s a good opportunity for the young guys.”
Even if the Bolts are still mathematically not yet eliminated with a 3-7 slate, the Bolts are not setting their expectations high. What matters for them right now is to end the conference strong, hoping that it will carry-over to the next conference.
“The mindset is to control what we can control. The only thing that we’re in control of right now is winning our last game against Star and everything else is kinda out of our hands,” the fourth overall pick in the 2015 draft said.
“We already got two wins more than our previous Philippine Cup so I think we’re slowly improving.”
