Definitely, the Meralco Bolts’ 93-105 loss to the San Miguel Beermen last Friday was an ugly one. But instead of floundering, the Orangemen stuck together, and that paid huge dividends come Wednesday evening.
The Bolts showed their ability to bounce back from such a horrible loss, and the TNT KaTropa witnessed that as Meralco demolished the latter’s 21-point wall to walk away from the Cuneta Astrodome with the 88-77 win in their bag.
And that kind of character is what made Chris Newsome proud.
“It’s definitely big, especially the way we lost to San Miguel. It wasn’t pretty at all. Of course, after a blowout game, you tend to get down. Teams can kind of go their separate ways instead of coming together,” said the four-year pro out of Ateneo.
“It shows a lot of character with the guys in our locker room.”
Meralco made the huge turnaround in the second half. From a double-digit deficit early in the third canto, the Bolts rallied furiously and eventually took a 54-50 lead thanks to five straight points by lead point guard Baser Amer.
From there, TNT looked shackled. They regained the lead late in the third, but Meralco made a fiery 22-2 blitz — capped by a Newsome triple — abridging the third and fourth quarters en route to a 79-60 lead with 4:47 left to play.
But as commendable as their showing had been, Newsome still hopes that he and the Bolts will become consistent, especially with their defense.
“For us, it’s just gonna have to be consistency. We all know we’re undersized for the All-Filipino but we still want to be known as a defensive team,” the versatile 6-foot-2 swingman shared, who led Meralco with 20 points, nine rebounds, and five boards.
“For us to be consistent and make it difficult for our opponents, that’s basically Meralco basketball in a nutshell. Offensively, we understand that have to be creative in how to score the ball, and of course, we gotta hit shots.
“Today, a lot of guys came through in the second half. It all comes down to consistency,” he added.
