MERALCO avoided another meltdown after building a huge lead, surviving Blackwater, 105-96, on Wednesday in the PBA 50th Season Philippine Cup at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Chris Newsome recovered from a shooting slump to start the season and finished with 22 points as the Bolts picked up their first win in their third try after leading by as many as 24 points in the contest.
Meralco was coming off a 96-95 overtime loss to Rain or Shine last Saturday where they saw a 16-point advantage slip away.
Blackwater fell to 1-1 after the Bossing kept within striking distance after trailing, 65-41, early in the third quarter.
Meralco spoiled the 34-point effort of Sedrick Barefield in his first game of the season for Blackwater.
After shooting just 32 percent during the first two games, Newsome made six of his nine shots from the field (67 percent) on their way to the victory.
Newsome finished an 11-0 run with a three-pointer to increase the gap to 95-81 in the fourth quarter.
It was a wire-to-wire victory for the Bolts as they even started the match-up with an 8-0 lead.
“I think we did enough to get the lead in the first quarter. We had a little bit of a meltdown in the third quarter when Blackwater got going offensively,” said Meralco coach Luigi Trillo.
“We did enough to win the game but you have to credit Blackwater for being resilient and getting the lead down,” said Trillo.
Cliff Hodge added 14 points and eight rebounds, while Allein Maliksi also got out of his own shooting slump after going 4-of-8 from the field to end up with 13 after hitting 13 percent of his shots in the first two matches.
RK Ilagan had 22 points, but Christian David and Dalph Panopio struggled and were limited to seven and two points respectively for Blackwater.
The scores:
Meralco 105 – Newsome 22, Hodge 14, Bates 13, Maliksi 13, Almazan 12, Black 11, Quinto 7, Cansino 6, Jose 5, Caram 2, Banchero 0, Pascual 0.
Blackwater 96 – Barefield 34, Ilagan 22, Tratter 11, David 7, Guinto 4, Mendoza 4, Jopia 4, Mallilin 3, Andrade 3, Murrell 2, Panopio 2, Cruz-Dumont 0, Escoto 0.
Quarters: 29-24; 61-39; 84-74; 105-96.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
