Meralco continued its mastery of San Miguel after coming away with a 100-93 decision to make the PBA Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinal buildup all the more interesting, Saturday night at the Candon City Arena in Ilocos Sur.
The Bolts leaned on Chris Newsome, Chris Banchero, and Akil Mitchell for the decisive 10-0 run to wipe out a three-point deficit and take the lead for good, 96-89, with 2:53 left to play to eventually hike their win-loss card to 7-3.
And by doing so, the MVP Group franchise has created a four-way tie with Hong Kong Eastern, Converge, and NorthPort at no. 2 in the team standings.
Mitchell top-scored for Meralco with 26 points, 16 rebounds, and five assists to once again lead the way in notching their third consecutive win.
Newsome finished with 20 points while Banchero added 19 as they helped make sure that the Bolts would come out on top in their first meeting with the Beermen since Game 6 of the Season 48 Philippine Cup Finals.
Yes, the match in which the face of the franchise delivered the game-winning jumper with 1.4 seconds left to clinch the team’s first-ever PBA title.
He once again proved to be the bane to SMB in the out-of-town affair, nailing one of his four triples with 5:14 to go in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 89-all and spark the aforementioned run that put them ahead the rest of the night.
Still, their budding rivals tried to rally back into the game and got to within just three, 96-93, behind free throws by new import Malik Pope with 2:03 left.
But CJ Cansino responded with a pull-up jumper from midrange about 16 seconds later before a split by Banchero pushed their lead to 99-93.
The window for a comeback then became smaller for San Miguel, and it didn’t help that CJ Perez was called for an offensive foul with 25.3 seconds to spare as he tried to bait for a foul while trying to launch from the first arc.
It proved to be the killer blow to their hopes and a split from the line by Cansino afterward would settle the final result, enabling Coach Luigi Trillo and Co. to come out on top even after losing an 11-point third-quarter advantage.
June Mar Fajardo had 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead San Miguel, which failed to follow up its 85-78 win over Magnolia last Sunday.
Perez had 16 points while Don Trollano — who gave them the 89-86 lead with 5:37 left — chipped in 14 markers in the defeat that spoiled the debut of Pope.
A replacement for the ineffective Jabari Narcis and already their fourth import in this conference, he did produce decently in his first game stats-wise as he finished with 14 points, nine rebounds, two assists, a steal, and a block.
Pope, who’s listed at 6-foot-10, only committed two turnovers but the last one happened down the stretch — a traveling violation with 1:29 left, just moments after Cansino’s jumper that widened the Meralco lead to 98-93.
The Beermen struggled to find any sort of rhythm afterward, and they went on to drop to 4-5 and remained situated at the eighth spot.
The Scores:
Meralco 100 – Mitchell 26, Newsome 20, Banchero 19, Reyson 7, Almazan 6, Cansino 6, Mendoza 4, Hodge 4, Rios 3, Torres 3, Quinto 2, Bates 0, Caram 0.
San Miguel 93 – Fajardo 20, Perez 16, Pope 14, Trollano 14, Tiongson 9,Tautuaa 8, Cruz 7, Rosales 5, Ross 0, Brondial 0, Teng 0, Lassiter 0.
Quarterscores: 26-18, 46-47, 80-80, 100-93.
