After dropping the series opener, Meralco Bolts head coach Norman Black talked about wanting to have better ball movement and decision-making from import Arinze Onuaku heading to Game Two.
That’s exactly what the Bolts did as they came up with a come-from-behind 92-87 win on Wednesday night to tie the semi-finals series at 1-1.
Onuaku finished with 22 points, 14 rebounds, and six assists, four more than his Game One assist output. The Bolts had 23 assists as a team, seven more than the Aces’ total.
“I give credit to my team for rotating the ball to the weak side,” Black said after Game 2.
The Bolts also drew strength from their outside shooting, making 8-for-22 in the match. With more points of attack, the Bolts made it a bit more difficult for the Aces defense to anticipate what’s going to happen.
“They are double and triple-teaming Arinze so it will go down to just shots. Luckily this game we did not have many turnovers. We got the breaks and we ended up winning,” Jared Dillinger said.
Dillinger himself finished with 20 points, including 5-for-10 from three-point area.
“Arinze stepped up today, he was aggressive, he read the defense well and he made it a lot simpler for all of us. We just have to be ready to shoot. We can’t be hesitant because Arinze draws a lot of defense out there. We will mix it up a little bit.”
Black added: “That’s what we needed. We really needed to hit our outside shots to space out the floor. Otherwise, the defense will just collapse.”
Though at the surface level, the Bolts’ win only meant tying the series, it actually meant a little bit more for the team as far as getting more play-off experience.
It was the Bolts’ first win in a conference semi-finals since 2013. The Bolts got swept in last year’s Commissioner’s Cup semi-finals by Rain or Shine, but this time around, the team is making sure they’re here to stay.
“We knew the importance of this game. I think it really helped our team grow a little bit. We have some guys who haven’t been here yet, who don’t know what play-off basketball is like,” Dillinger said.
“So coming back from a deficit and winning, it helps our younger guys get that play-off experience.”
