Meralco welcomed KJ McDaniels with a skid-ending 92-89 stunner of Bay Area in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, Friday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
The returning import was solid with 33 points and eight rebounds, but Raymond Almazan and Bong Quinto made sure that his Bolts campaign would start off on a triumphant note by conspiring in the most crucial of times.
Quinto nailed the go-ahead fall away from the baseline with 1:16 to go, and Almazan added on to the lead by cleaning up Aaron Black’s miss with just 38 seconds left on the clock before riding some luck on the way to win No. 2.
“It’s a blessing that I’m back in the PBA,” said McDaniels, who previously suited up for the other MVP Group-owned teams TNT and NLEX.
“I shot the ball horribly. But that’s no excuse, I got to find other ways to help my team win,” he added, as he went 11-for-33 from the floor. “Credit to my teammates, they picked me up and they still had confidence in me.”
Still, a huge reason behind the win was the former NBA cager, who scored 13 of his points in the fourth quarter to keep his side stay close to the guest team after facing an 85-79 deficit approaching the game’s final five minutes.
Then came the heroics of the former Letran stars, ultimately injecting new life into the Bolts’ flickering playoff aspirations in the midseason wars.
“With KJ coming in, we thought we had like a breath of fresh air and it would give us a chance to win,” said head coach Norman Black.
Almazan finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds. Allein Maliksi fired 13 points and five boards, while Quinto and Chris Banchero chipped in 12 markers apiece for Meralco in the victory that hiked its record to 2-5.
“I wouldn’t say it’s humorous but I was looking at the court at certain times of the game and they have a really big team. I mean almost position, we’re looking up,” said Black while looking upward. “You just have to go and gut it out.”
The Bolts hope to continue their success against the skidding Blackwater next Friday, 5:45 p.m. at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
Bay Area’s loss, meanwhile, wasted the Herculean effort of Andrew Nicholson, who finished with 50 points and 12 rebounds in nearly 45 minutes.
It was the first 50-point outing in the league since Shabazz Muhammad had 57 against, coincidentally, Meralco in the last Governors’ Cup.
Kobey Lam was his lone backup with 23 points and nine rebounds for the Dragons, who absorbed just their second loss but dropped to second in the standings at 6-2, allowing the 5-1 Magnolia to go back on top.
Bay Area missed 7-foot-5 center Liu Chaunxing reportedly due to a severe ankle injury, reducing him to a spectator on the bench.
The wards of Brian Goorjian will look to pick themselves up against Rain or Shine next Friday as well in the 3 p.m. twin bill opener.
The Scores:
Meralco 92 – McDaniels 31, Almazan 14, Maliksi 13, Banchero 12, Quinto 12, Caram 5, Pasaol 4, Black 1, Jose 0, Pascual 0.
Bay Area 89 – Nicholson 50, Lam 23, Zhu 5, Ju 5, Zheng 4, Yang 2, Blankley 0, Liang 0, Song 0, Reid 0.
Quarterscores: 20-17, 43-41, 67-67, 92-89.
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The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
