Meralco showed San Miguel the exit doors, 100-85, to take full advantage of its win-once incentive and become the first team to enter the 2021-22 PBA Governors’ Cup semifinals, Wednesday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“‘It’s nice to be back in the semis again, and you know, it’s not every day you’d beat the San Miguel team, the powerhouse San Miguel team, so it’s a good one for us,” said head coach Norman Black postgame.
Now headed to its fourth straight semis, the Bolts will now wait for the winner between top seed Magnolia and Phoenix Super LPG for its foes.
Tony Bishop led Meralco with 32 points and 16 rebounds. The Panamanian cager scored 18 of his team’s 31 points in the third quarter, where they broke the game wide open that saw them lead by as many as 21 points.
“Tony Bishop really played well. Tonight. He shot the basketball well from the perimeter,” lauded Black.
Chris Newsome backed him up with 22 points and seven boards as the MVP Group-owned ball club exacted revenge on the very same team that dealt them one of their worst losses — a 26-point collapse last March 5.
Furthermore, they prevented Shabazz Muhammad from dropping 57 markers against them once more. The former NBA cager was limited to just 24 points on 8-of-19 shooting, though he collected 15 rebounds.
“Well, we had about a week to prepare for four days, five days. So, you know, the whole focus was after what happened to us in the elimination round. The whole focus was on trying to slow down Shabazz,” Black said.
“And, not allowing him to get another 57 points on it. We were hoping to hold them down to 30. We thought that would be a good number. But I think we held them down to 24. So that was even better,” he added.
The Bolts turned the game around in the second period, with Reynel Hugnatan hitting two treys to lead an 11-0 run for a 43-36 lead with 3:40 left. They ended the first half with a 15-4 blitz overall for a 48-40 lead at the break.
Then came the third quarter assault, with Bishop leading the way that saw him hit all four of his treys. An Aaron Black bucket gave them a 74-53 lead.
SMB, though, showed some signs of life in the final period. Muhammad sliced the lead ti just 12, 92-80, with 4:32 left, but Newsome and Bishop were there to prevent the opposition from gaining footing for an uprising.
“Hats off to my players,” said Black. “It helped us that we played Phoenix because Phoenix used all defenses against us.”
Terrence Romeo had 17 points for San Miguel, who lost to Meralco for the second time in the playoffs in the last three seasons.
June Mar Fajardo had 12 points and 12 rebounds, while CJ Perez chimed in 12 as well alongside seven boards in the defeat that ended what has been a shaky ride for the Beermen owing to three import switches and new additions.
The Scores:
Meralco 100 – Bishop 32, Newsome 22, Banchero 9, Hugnatan 9, Almazan 8, Maliksi 6, Quinto 4, Black 4, Hodge 4, Baclao 2, Jose 0.
San Miguel 85 – Muhammad 24, Romeo 17, Fajardo 12, Perez 12, Ross 6, Lassiter 5, Brondial 5, Manuel 4, Tautuaa 0, Cruz 0.
Quarterscores: 26-26, 48-40, 79-61, 100-85.
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