Allen Durham flirted with a triple-double to power Meralco past NorthPort, 109-99, in the PBA Governors’ Cup, Sunday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
On the way to regaining his old form, the three-time Best Import finished with 34 points, 16 rebounds, and nine assists. And he headed the Bolts’ third-quarter surge toward their second win in a row, improving to 3-1 in Group A as well.
The bruising big scored 19 of his points in the said period – half of the team’s total points – en route to establishing a 90-66 advantage entering the final chapter.
And they achieved that after owning just a slim three-point distance at the break.
“Still not there yet, but with each day that’s coming, you know, with practicing and games, I’m getting better,” said Durham, who shot 13-of-18 from the field, including 2-of-4 from deep, and only had one turnover in 40 minutes
“I’m getting more comfortable with the guys,” he added. “This is a marathon, not a race. So once I get there, we’re going to be a pretty good team.”
Chris Banchero supplied 24 points and eight rebounds, while Bong Quinto had 18 points. The two joined hands in dealing the final blows to put their foes away for good after the latter got to within just nine points.
Banchero, firstly, sank a tough turnaround jumper, and Quinto followed it up with a layup off the break to make it a 108-95 spread with 1:06 left to play.
Anjo Caram chipped in 10 points as he provided much-needed help for a team that faced manpower problems due to illness and injuries.
“Norbert Torres has dengue. Cliff couldn’t play his back. Toto Jose is still out. Raymond is out. He was supposed to be back now but we’re checking on his knee. It seems like it’s gonna be longer than it should,” said coach Luigi Trillo.
Yet they had more than enough to beat the Batang Pier and foiled the latter’s bid of winning back-to-back, mainly by limiting Arvin Tolentino.
After erupting 51 in their rout of Converge, the star forward was held to just 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting and seven rebounds for his team.
William Navarro tried to carry some of the load with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Ditto with Joshua Munzon as he made 16 points and three steals.
“Overall, [we had] enough to beat a tough NorthPort team,” said Trillo as Meralco improved to solo second in Group A behind TNT.
Both teams will return to action on Wednesday, September 4, at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
Meralco battles the FiberXers (2-2) at 5:00 PM, before NorthPort takes on Magnolia (2-2) at 7:30 PM to cap off the twin bill.
The Scores:
Meralco 109 – Durham 34, Banchero 23, Quinto 18, Caram 10, Newsome 8, Pascual 6, Cansino 6, Rios 2, Mendoza 2, Bates 0, Hodge 0, Pasaol 0.
NorthPort 99 – Tolentino 21, Navarro 18, Munzon 16, Flores 8, Bulanadi 7, Jois 6, Amores 6, Cuntapay 6, Jalalon 5, Nelle 3, Yu 3, Tratter 0, Onwubere 0.
Quarterscores: 22-28, 52-49, 90-66, 109-99.
