MERALCO got stung by a numbing loss handed by San Miguel Beer the last time out.
The two teams clash anew, with the Bolts eyeing to make short work of the Beermen today in the quarterfinals of the PBA Governors Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The match is set at 3 o’clock before elimination round pacesetter and twice-to-beat Magnolia squares off with No. 8 Phoenix Super LPG in the nightcap at 6 p.m.
Armed with a win-once incentive as the fourth-ranked squad, Meralco coach Norman Black told his charges to move on after their sorry 110-115 setback last March 5 that saw SMB fight back from 26 points down behind the 57 markers of prolific import Shabazz Muhammad.
“I just look at it as if we have to beat them once,” Black said. “I can’t bring back what happened in the last game. It is very obvious that we would like to watch that game that we’ve actually done a couple of times already, so we don’t make the same mistakes when we play them again.
“Going into the game you start 0-0 so that’s gonna be my focus going into that game the next time we play San Miguel. I’m just happy to get that twice-to-beat because we’ll gonna need it against San Miguel,” he added.
The Bolts finished their eliminations campaign with a 7-4 record and blasted the Fuel Masters 109-90 last March 11.
The likes of import Tony Bishop, Allein Maliksi, Cliff Hodge, Chris Newsome, and Chris Banchero will be counted upon by Meralco.
Aside from Muhammad, June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Terrence Romeo, Vic Manuel, and Marcio Lassiter will carry the fight for the Beermen, who wound up with an identical card with the Bolts after the eliminations.
The Hotshots are also raring to advance to the semifinals after topping the elims with a 9-2 slate, but fell 100-101 to Blackwater, erstwhile loser of 29 straight games, last March 9.
Magnolia will rely on reinforcement Mike Harris, Paul Lee, Mark Barroca, and Ian Sangalang.
Phoenix carried a 5-6 record after the elimination and scored a gutsy 101-98 decision in overtime over NorthPort last March 13 to reach the quarters.
Ranged against the Hotshots, Fuel Masters strategist Topex Robinson admitted the road gets tougher for his team.
