Allen Durham didn’t have much support in Game One of Meralco’s 2019 PBA Governors’ Cup semifinal bout versus TNT last Sunday. Fortunately, that changed come Game Two a couple of nights later.
His fellow starters all made their mark. Baser Amer was back to his gunslinging ways and produced 20 points; Bong Quinto supplied 12 points; while Chris Newsome chimed in 11 markers.
That then led to the dominant 114-94 victory that allowed the Orangemen to tie the series at one game apiece.
“All eliminations, we were one of the top teams in assists, and we got away from that in Game One. I dunno how many assists we got, but it felt a lot better,” said Durham, as Meralco had 23 dimes.
“It’s all moving the ball, and everybody got a feel of the game and we played a lot better.”
Durham had himself a monster game, notching a triple-double of 44 points on 57-percent shooting along with 19 rebounds and 11 assists in over 42 minutes of playing time.
“That’s more on my teammates hitting shots, having the confidence to take their shots and obviously, just doing what I’ve been doing all conference — getting rebounds, getting a bucket when I can.”
Besides their offense, Durham said that defense also did wonders in the victory — best exemplified in how they contained TNT’s main man Jayson Castro and Roger Pogoy.
The Gilas Pilipinas teammates scored a combined 0-for-15 from the floor. The whole KaTropa shot 31.6-percent.
‘The defense was good. Obviously, the way we played defense on Game One was not gonna get us to where we wanna go. We had to come out and be more physical, be more aggressive on them,” he said.
“They’re two great scorers, and if you just let them have easy shots, they’re gonna light it up and lit up the stat sheet. Overall, the guys guarding them did a great job tonight.”
