Tony Bishop best exemplified atonement as Meralco got back at budding rivals San Miguel in the 2022 PBA Governors’ Cup quarterfinals, Friday.
The Panamanian cager asserted himself right from the start, clearly driven to ensure that he and the Bolts won’t suffer the same fate they had about two weeks ago that saw them blow a 26-point lead and bow to the Beermen.
It could be recalled that he committed a couple of blunders in the endgame that factored in the painful defeat. There, he failed to catch the ball on both occasions as he succumbed to the defense of two-time DPoY Chris Ross.
So, he showed that he was much better than that when they crossed paths anew. The 32-year-old forward finished with 32 points on a 50-percent clip from the field, on top of 16 rebounds, four assists, and two blocks.
Bishop fired 18 of his points in the third quarter, where Meralco broke the game wide open and went on to lead by as many as 21 points. He nailed all four of his treys in that stretch, some of which he made against, well, Ross.
Ultimately, the Bolts won, 100-85, to become the first team to clinch a seat in the semifinals while putting an abrupt end to the powerhouse’s season.
Bishop didn’t hide that their painful loss to SMB served as motivation, especially for him, thus the brilliant performance he pulled off.
Photo by PBA Images
“Yeah, for me definitely, it was a motivation,” he said after the match at SMART Araneta Coliseum. “I hear what everybody says, I read the articles.
“For me, I just used that as motivation, like go out there and give my best every single game. I kind of stayed locked in and just did what I could on offense and defense to help my team win the game,” he added.
But what also proved key in the triumph, according to Bishop, was how much the entire squad had learned in taking good care of big leads.
Meralco has lost four games in the conference thus far, first against a Robert Bolick-less NorthPort that snapped its 4-0 start before losing three straight to Alaska, Magnolia, and San Miguel during the tailend of the eliminations.
And in all those defeats, the Bolts lost hold of leads. They blew a 19-point advantage to the Batang Pier; a six-point cushion to the Aces in the final minutes; a 16-point edge to the Hotshots; and then, of course, 26 to SMB.
“That’s our key. We’ve blown a lot of leads in the past three games,” he said. “Now, we know what to do to win basketball games. We know that we have to continue to be aggressive and continue to fight, man, because we don’t want to blow a lead, you know. It’s kind of disheartening, you kind of get mad and get down on yourself.”
“But we can’t lose confidence,” added Bishop, who’s been playing professionally since 2011.
“We gotta continue to fight.”
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