GAMES TOMORROW
(PhilSports Arena, Pasig)
5 p.m. – NLEX vs. Converge
7:30 p.m. – Blackwater vs. Ginebra
ANTIPOLO CITY. — Ace playmaker Chris Newsome of defending champion Meralco’s eyes sparkled after seeing smaller Blackwater guard RK Ilagan guarding him in the third quarter Wednesday night.
Newsome bamboozled his way, dropping Ilagan to the floor before easily laying it up for a 61-51 tally with 6:11 remaining in the third quarter.
Regaining their firepower, the Bolts zapped the Bossing 103-85 to pump life into their playoff bid in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ynares Center here.
Meralco coach Luigi Trillo gave his charges plaudits for showing up with a sense of urgency in recovering from a highly-emotional 92-117 loss to the Magnolia Hotshots last week and improved to 4-5.
“Coach Nenad (Vucinic, active consultant) was saying, even at half time, it’s probably the first time we played with that sense of urgency, probably our best defense so far in terms of being locked in,” Trillo said. “I think we gave about 80 points, which is good. In our last two games, we were playing quality teams, TNT and Magnolia and it could go either way and we weren’t that bad. It was just that in the end in those games they kinda got some separation from us. But proud of what these guys did tonight. When you look at the rebounding, the last few games we lost.
“We didn’t win on the rebounding battle. This game, 62-42 (in our favor). We also shared the ball with 24 assists. We didn’t shoot that three-ball that good. But it’s still a good sign. It seems like we have two more games before the playoffs begin and it’s nice to see the guys play together,” he added.
Newsome compiled 19 points and seven rebounds while rookie CJ Cansino chimed in 14 markers, five boards, and three assists.
Chris Banchero, Raymar Jose, and Brandon Bates also ably stepped up in the absence of veteran forward Cliff Hodge who served a one-game suspension with 13, 12, and 10 points, respectively, for Meralco.
Blackwater absorbed a third straight defeat, including a 106-120 setback to Rain or Shine last May 7 and spiraled to 1-5 in the season-ending tourney.
The Bolts sat on a 52-39 spread at the half they increased to 76-62 leading up to the final canto.
From there, Meralco was hardly threatened and pushed the lead to as much as 84-62 on a Cansino triple at the 10:18 mark.
Christian David scored 24 points and grabbed 10 caroms for the Bossing while Sedrick Barefield had 23 and three.
Richard Escoto also contributed 11 markers for Blackwater.
At least on this humid night, the Bolts proved there was no power outage.
