Meralco leaned on defense in crunch time to withstand TNT, 110-106, for its second straight win in the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup Tuesday night.
The Bolts almost squandered a big 20-point lead when the Tropang 5G charged back and threatened late with a 12-0 run to get within a field goal, 107-105, with a minute to go, but prevented their sister team from getting any closer.
Coach Luigi Trillo’s charges disrupted Bol Bol from the outside, and then forced a driving Jordan Heading with no choice but to pass it out to RR Pogoy, who then fired an air-ball as he wasn’t established enough from three-point distance.
Marvin Jones would split his foul shots for the eventual scoreline with 10.2 ticks left, and relied on D once more to stop the opposition from getting any good look from deep on the way to taking the scalp of the defending champions.
(C) PBA Images
“They hung around. We’re up by 12 in the last five minutes, but they persevered. But a win is a win, and we’ll take it,” offered Trillo.
Jones top-scored for Meralco with 29 points and 12 rebounds as he and the squad emerged triumphant amid an electric atmosphere at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, as a solid crowd came in to watch the rivalry affair live.
CJ Cansino made 19 points, four rebounds, and the same number of assists. Raymond Almazan had 12 points and five rebounds to lead the bench, while Cliff Hodge added 10 markers before fouling out late in the game.
Chris Newsome chipped in seven points, none more important than the free throws he coolly sank to make it a 109-105 spread with 14.3 seconds on the clock–and further distance themselves from their counterparts.
And eventually, the crew would gain a measure of payback against the same team that beat them in five in the Season 50 Philippine Cup semis.
“‘Yung experience namin in the last series, grabe ang sakit, at ayaw namin maulit. Yung mga nangyari, dala namin sa game,” said Cansino of their painful Game 5 loss, where they blew a five-point lead with 27 seconds left.
(C) PBA Images
Bol had 28 points and 12 rebounds for TNT in his lowest outputs thus far after averaging 37.3 points, 16.3 rebounds, and 2.6 blocks in their first three games.
Making it worse was his last trip to the foul line with 13.2 seconds left, where he could’ve had the chance to trim the gap to two again, but only split his shots.
That failure to capitalize on the situation did hurt their chances, as they’d go on to bow and see their 35-point fourth-quarter explosion go for naught.
Heading made 21 points behind a perfect 4-of-4 shooting from three-point territory while Calvin Oftana chipped in 10 in the rally that fell short, ultimately snapping their two-game winning streak and falling to 2-2 in the standings.
The Scores:
Meralco 110 – Jones 29, Cansino 19, Almazan 12, Hodge 10, Mocon 9, Newsome 7, Quinto 7, Banchero 6, Brickman 4, Black 4, Pascual 3.
TNT 106 – Bol 28, Heading 21, Oftana 10, Galinato 8, Nambatac 7, Rosser 6, Khobuntin 6, Chua 6, Ferrer 5, Pogoy 5, Castro 2, Nieto 2, Williams 0, Nava 0, Aurin 0.
Quarterscores: 27-21, 54-40, 88-71, 110-106.
