Tied at 84 with 2.7 seconds left in regulation, reinforcement Josh Davis nailed in a tough 13-footer against a double team with the offhand to give Meralco their fifth win of the season is as many games in an 86-84 win over Globalport held at Mall of Asia Arena.
In addition to his incredible game winner, Davis finished the afternoon with 33 points on 65% shooting with also 24 rebounds and five assists.
The Bolts started with a 9-2 blast as they found their jumpers finding the bottom of the rim early. With Meralco’s defense dictating their game at the threshold, the Batang Pier backcourt had a difficult time in making their jump shots. Meralco established their first double-digit cushion at 16-6 with a triple by John Wilson.
Looking to counter, Terrence Romeo and Calvin Warner combined for the next six points for Batang Pier to trim the gap to five. Heading to the last two minutes of the opening frame, both teams exchanged multiple stops with their defense as Meralco ended the first 12 minutes up by five.
With the Globalport’s second unit fielding in, offense came in spurts for Batang Pier as baskets from Jewel Ponferada and Mark Isip tied the game at 25. The reinsertion of Davis back in the lineup extinguished the dry spell for Meralco offensively as they outscored Globalport by seven in the last seven minutes of the opening half.
In the start of the third period, Meralco managed to hang on with the lead and even restored an eight point cushion capped by another triple by Wilson. After a timeout, Globalport made necessary stops and build on a 10-2 run to counter and grab the lead at 50-47 as their perimeter baskets started to fall from that point. They eventually outscored Meralco by six in the period and have the lead entering the last period
In the dying moments of the closely-encountered fourth period, Gary David and Josh Davis managed to drain their freethrows late to find themselves up by two with over a minute to play. On the next play, Calvin Warner found an open Semerad for a triple but did not find the mark. Pringle then picked up the lose ball but also missed in his floater but Warner cleaned up the mess plus a foul to give them an 81-80 lead.
On the other end, Sean Anthony punched in two more freethrows to give them back the lead. Warner passed on another opportunity and gave Keith Jensen a shot for a triple that missed, leading to Gary David adding two more freebies with 9.7 seconds left. Down by three, Ronjay Buenafe dialed in a wing triple to tie things up with less than 3 seconds to go. After a timeout, Davis drilled in the awkward-looking game-winner to seal the deal for the Bolts.
Despite being outrebounded 55-47, Meralco had more steals 9-5 and also made three more triples against the Batang Pier.
Gary David led the production of the locals for the Bolts with his 22 points off the bench while also making all his six shots from the charity stripe. Warner anchored Globalport with 24 points, 16 rebounds and two blocks.
The scores:
Meralco(86) – Davis 33, David 22, Cortez 10, Wilson 8, Anthony 8, Reyes 3, Hugnatan 2, Hodge 0, Atkins 0, Ildefonso 0, Sena 0, Dillinger 0, Macapagal 0, Ferriols 0
Globalport(84) – Warner 24, Romeo 14, Ponferada 10, Miranda 9, Buenafe 9, Pringle 6, Semerad 6, Isip 6, Jensen 0
