Allen Durham and the Meralco Bolts have been waiting for this day since October of 2016. With Durham leading the charge, the Bolts played inspired basketball, spoiling Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s conference opener, 93-78, Sunday evening at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
Meralco is now 2-0 in the standings while the defending champions dropped to 0-1. Moreover, this is the Bolts’ first win against the Gin Kings since Game Three of the 2016 PBA Governors Cup Finals series, which took place on October 12, 2016.
“I don’t think we have beaten them, this may be the first time we have beaten them this year,” recalled Meralco head coach Norman Black. “We know when you play Ginebra you’re not just playing Ginebra, you’re playing the atmosphere, you’re playing the crowd. It’s almost like one of those us-against-the-world attitudes that we brought to the game tonight. And that’s the way you have to play against Ginebra.”
With Ginebra leading by two points to open the second half, Meralco went on a 13-1 blast with Jared Dillinger, Cliff Hodge, and Chris Newsome taking turns on scoring. Even if LA Tenorio tried to stop the bleeding, the Bolts rally continues as the lead went to as high as 19 points, 72-53, after a Dillinger layup with 1:51 left.
The Bolts’ lead would only go to as low as 10 points, 74-64, after a 7-0 rally sparked by Dave Marcelo with 10:10 left. Durham though restored order, scoring 10 of his 30 points in the final frame.
“In the second half we played much better offensively, moved the ball better, started to make some shots. JD made some outside shots for us and three-point shots that opened up their defense,” shared Black.
Besides his 30-point outing, the 29-year old flirted with a triple-double with 24 points and nine assists to go along with a block.
Dillinger and Newsome finished with 17 and 16 points respectively with the latter grabbing 13 rebounds as well.
“I’m very happy with our effort tonight especially on the defensive end. We played good defense the entire game. A lot of people were involved with that,” Black furthered.
LA Tenorio led Ginebra with 16 points, 11 coming in the first half. However, he was stifled by the alternating defense of Newsome and Baser Amer during the later stages of the game.
Greg Slaughter also played his first game since tearing his ACL last September 9, 2016. The 7-footer finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds in 30 minutes of action.
Meralco looks to make it three in a row when it faces the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters on Saturday, July 29 at the Ynares Center in Antipolo. Ginebra, on the other hand, looks to bounce back against the Globalport Batang Pier on Sunday, July 30 at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.
The Scores:
Meralco 93 – Durham 30, Dillinger 17, Newsome 16, Hodge 10, Amer 8, Hugnatan 5, Nabong 4, Lanete 3, Caram 0, Chua 0, Atkins 0, Faundo 0, Sedurifa 0.
Ginebra 78 – Tenorio 16, Slaughter 14, Brownlee 13, Thompson 9, Mercado 8, Aguilar 6, Ellis 6, Marcelo 4, Taha 2, Mariano 0, Devance 0, Caguioa 0.
Quarterscores: 21-32, 43-45, 72-57, 93-78.
