WINGMAN Bong Quinto fired a bullet pass to a cutting Allen Durham and the Meralco import bullied his way inside, converting on a short stab while drawing a foul off Converge guard BJ Andrade last night.
Getting a big boost from their shock troopers, the short-handed Bolts smothered the FiberXers 116-88 for their third straight win and the solo lead in Group A of the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Action shifts to the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila today with TNT taking on winless Terrafirma in the curtain-raiser while unbeaten Rain or Shine stakes its perfect mark when it battles San Miguel Beer in the second tiff.
On another cold and damp evening, the hulking Durham, a former best import, completed a three-point play that gave his side a commanding 109-84 spread with 3:32 to go and flexed both his broad shoulders in celebration of the big turnaround as Meralco outplayed Converge in the third quarter en route to the emphatic win.
Bolts coach Luigi Trillo gave his reserves plaudits for rising to the occasion despite the continued absence of the likes of Cliff Hodge (back), Raymond Almazan (knee), Allein Maliksi (knee), Aaron Black (meniscus) and Norbert Torres (dengue).
“We didn’t start out too well like in our last game but as the game progressed it seemed like we had more of a sense of urgency defensively. So, I thought we played better defense from the second quarter,” Trillo said. “What’s nice is we have guys like Anjo (Caram), he’s a pro, he’s ready to play when guys go down.
“Not only him but Alvin (Pasaol) I think also played well. The other guys who don’t really get many minutes, they were huge tonight and their contributions for us,” he added.
Durham notched a double-double of 27 points and 14 rebounds, on top of six assists while Chris Banchero chipped in 24 markers, five boards and five dimes.
Caram banged in all his four three-point tries and finished with 16 points while Pasaol and Jolo Mendoza added 12 and 10, respectively, for the Bolts, who did an encore to a 109-99 whipping of the NorthPort Batang Pier last Sunday and rose to 4-1.
Converge absorbed its second loss in a row, counting a 109-135 rout at the hands of NorthPort seven days back and slipped to 2-3.
It was initially the FiberXers who showed fire in their eyes, racing to a 23-8 lead early on before the Meralco grabbed a 53-50 cushion at the half.
The Bolts turned their slim edge to 86-73 heading into the final canto and did not look back from there.
A Raymar Jose and-one gave Meralco its biggest advantage 114-84, only 1:27 to go.
Reinforcement Scotty Hopson carried the fight for Converge with 33 points, six caroms and six feeds while Alec Stockton had 13 and four.
JL Delos Santos and Jeo Ambohot also combined for 22 as the FiberXers missed the presence of center Justin Arana due to a sprained right ankle he suffered the last time out and fellow big man Patrick Maagdenberg who went down with a no-contact right knee injury early in the second.
When all the dust settled, the Bolts continued to thrive even without some of their key players.
