MERALCO succeeded where it failed three days ago and gave grieving coach Norman Black some solace last night.
Putting to heart the lessons learned the last time out, the Bolts edged San Miguel Beer 89-86 to gain a quarterfinals berth in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Veteran shooter Allein Maliksi and Aaron Black knocked down two straight three-pointers that gave Meralco an 88-83 lead with 50.3 to go before the Bolts held their ground in the face of the Beermen’s endgame bid to steal the win.
SMB pulled to within 86-88 on a CJ Perez triple 10 seconds later and still had a chance at forcing overtime after Maliksi canned only one of his two free throws, only 9.6 ticks left.
But Simon Enciso missed on a triple try at the buzzer as Meralco heaved a big sigh of relief and scored a big bounce back victory that improved its mark to 6-4 after dropping an 88-97 overtime loss to Magnolia last Friday.
The Beermen wound up with a 9-2 card after the eliminations, still good for the No. 1 seed in the quarterfinals, but saw their six-game winning streak, counting a 109-108 escape over Terrafirma four days ago, come to a screeching halt.
Maliksi scattered 18 points and with eight rebounds for the Bolts, while Chris Newsome chipped in 16 markers, five boards, and five assists.
Aaron Black finished with 15 points, seven caroms, and five dimes for Meralco.
Bolts assistant coach Luigi Trillo called the shots anew for the team still without Norman Black who is in the United States to attend to his ailing mother. The older Black’s mother passed away yesterday.
“I was telling them before the game, we have Allein, Chris Banchero, Bong Quinto, we have guys that we believed in and you’re looking at the quality of shots, the shots were good, as long as we’re doing the right thing on offense, we’re at the proper spots and the decision-making is good, if will fall for Allen,” Trillo said.
“But credit the guys setting him up. We looked at Allein but Newsome set him up, Aaron Black set him up, Cliff (Hodge) gave tons of screens for him and also Raymond (Almazan).
So, again it’s a collective effort by the team,” he added.
Meralco took a 40-37 cushion at the half and 70-67 heading into the payoff period.
SMB had its last upperhand on a Vic Manuel freebie 83-82 with 1:35 remaining.
June Mar Fajardo paced the Beermen with 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Perez had 14 markers.
Manuel, Marcio Lassiter, and Enciso had 12, 12, and 11 points, respectively for SMB.
Deputy Ato Agustin coached the Beermen after fellow assistant Jorge Gallent joined head coach Leo Austria in the league’s health and safety protocols. Also not around were assistant coaches Peter Martin and Dayong Mendoza.
