MERALCO paid dearly for allowing Ryukyu to go on a second-quarter scoring spree that proved to be the key in a 77-74 loss Wednesday night on the road in the East Asia Super League Season 2.
The Golden Kings, runner-up in the B. League last year, scored 28 points during that stretch on the three-point shooting of Yoshiya Uematsu, Masahiro Waki, Yoshiyuki Matsuwaki, and Ryuichi Kishimoto and the inside presence of import Victor Law and naturalized player Alex Kirk.
The show of force shoved the Japanese side to a 51-35 lead, a good enough cushion to hold off a late charge by the Bolts and give the home team their first season win at the Okinawa Arena.
Law, the former Orlando Magic, came through with a double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds, fellow import Jack Cooley also had 18 and seven boards, while Kirk added 12 to deal the Bolts their first loss.
In the other game at F-pico Arena in Fukuyama, reigning B. League champion Hiroshima Dragonflies also had a rousing EASL debut with a 78-67 win over new team Hong Kong Eastern.
Uematsu and Matsuwaki each had nine points and banked in a three-pointer each along with Wakiand Kishimoto during that second-quarter breakaway.
DJ Kennedy fired 30 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Meralco, a 97-85 winner over new team Macau Blackbears in the season opener last Oct. 2 at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Chris Newsome added 18 along with import Allen Durham, although the Bolts badly missed the absence of veteran forward Cliff Hodge together with injured players Allein Maliksi and CJ Cansino.
Hodge stayed in Manila to be his wife who gave birth to their first baby.
The 36-year-old Durham, playing for the first time against his former squad, teamed up with Kennedy and Bong Quinto in an 8-0 run to rally back from an 11-point deficit and threaten at 77-74 with 20 seconds remaining.
Meralco had a chance to send the game into overtime but Durham’s attempt from three-point range missed its mark just before the buzzer.
