After nearly two months, the Meralco Bolts have finally tasted a win.
The Orangemen, who last won back in August 17, were able to break their six-game slump on Sunday night with a come-from-behind 105-102 victory over sister team NLEX Road Warriors.
Baser Amer was the hero for the Bolts, scoring 17 of his 22 points in the final frame alone. The 6-foot guard scored his team’s final six points inside the last 46.2 seconds to turn the tables around.
But it was Allen Durham who sealed the much-needed win by smothering Juami Tiongson’s pull-up from beyond the arc with 1.2 ticks left to play, a shot that could have sent the game into OT.
“It feels great,” said Durham, who produced 36 points, 18 rebounds, and seven assists. “Even though we won we still didn’t play perfect but I’m proud of our guys, they didn’t give up.
“I think we’re down ten or nine points with six minutes, but we just showed relentlessness and we just kept fighting. That’s what happens when you keep fighting for the whole forty-eight minutes.”
From being on the brink of elimination, the Bolts have now kept their playoff hopes beating. After Sunday’s morale-booster, the back-to-back runners-up have improved to 2-6.
Durham, however, doesn’t want to look too far ahead.
“We can’t really think about playoffs right now. We just gotta think about getting better, take one game at a time. When we think too far ahead, that’s when mistakes happen,” said the 30-year-old.
“You overlook the team, and everything falls from there.”
