Meralco overcame a decade’s worth of deficit and downed San Miguel, 93-86, to gain the head start in the PBA Season 48 Philippine Cup Finals witnessed by a solid crowd at the SMART Araneta Coliseum, Wednesday night.
The Bolts went down by as many as 10 points twice in the first half but the Bolts kept on coming close until they finally garnered enough momentum in the fourth, eventually beating the Beermen for the second time this conference.
Cliff Hodge powered the crucial 7-0 run — punctuated by a Bong Quinto breakaway jam — to take the 79-75 lead with about nine minutes to go.
Chris Banchero would then make sure that they’d stay in control all the way to the end, leading the blitz that gave them a 93-83 edge with 1:35 left to play as they went on to complete the second-half turnaround for the 1-0 series lead.
“They beat us in a lot of categories in the first half, then we came out in the second half and were able to do the game plan that we wanted to do,” said head coach Luigi Trillo as they limited their foes to only 35 second-half points.
Banchero and main man Chris Newsome led Meralco with 18 points apiece and collected at least six rebounds plus five assists each.
Quinto and Allein Maliksi produced 15 points each, with the veteran gunslinger contributing as much coming off the bench.
Hodge, meanwhile, added seven points and 15 rebounds, nine of which he hauled down on the offensive end which helped his side a great deal.
The grizzled big man also did a commendable job helping crowd out SMB star June Mar Fajardo along with Raymond Almazan and Brandon Bates.
Yet the seven-time MVP still managed to get his usual numbers, finishing with 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and 10 rebounds,
But he committed six turnovers, and the 6-foot-10 slotman could only do so much as his efforts weren’t enough to save themselves.
It didn’t help San Miguel, too, that the coaches had to keep CJ Perez for a while on the bench after incurring four personal fouls in the first half.
Perez still finished with 20 points and seven rebounds but his absence from late in the second period to near the midway mark of the third proved costly, as it was at that stretch where Meralco began to gain steam.
Marcio Lassiter had 16 points for the Beermen, who’s now 0-2 against the Bolts in this all-Filipino wars. Their first loss was in the eliminations last May 4, a 95-92 decision that snapped their unbeaten 10-game winning streak.
Game 2 is on Friday still at the Big Dome.
The Scores:
Meralco 93 – Newsome 18, Banchero 18, Quinto 15, Maliksi 15, Caram 9, Almazan 8, Hodge 7, Bates 2, Pascual 1, Torres 0, Pasaol 0, Jose 0, Dario 0.
San Miguel 86 – Fajardo 23, Perez 20, Lassiter 16, Trollano 9, Tautuaa 5, Cruz 5, Teng 4, Brondial 4, Ross 0, Enciso 0.
Quarterscores: 19-20, 44-51, 70-72, 93-86.
