MERALCO pulled off a stunner to start the PBA 48th Season Philippine Cup Finals, defeating San Miguel, 93-86, on Wednesday night at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
The Bolts caught fire in the fourth quarter with a 7-0 blast that turned the tide in their favor before Chris Banchero and Chris Newsome put the finishing touches to an unexpected result to start the best-of-seven finals.
Bong Quinto, Allein Maliksi, and Cliff Hodge also made the big plays as the Bolts asserted their mastery of the heavily-favored Beermen, winning their second game in as many meetings with the defending champions.
Meralco coach Luigi Trillo was careful not to celebrated too much after the Game One victory but made sure to laud the team effort.
“Overall, the team effort in which everybody is chipping in,” said Trillo. “Before, it was New carrying the load or Allein. But now, other guys are important.”
“Just one game, we’ve got to focus on the next one,” he added.
Banchero had 18 points, seven rebounds, and five assists, while Newsome added 18 points and six rebounds for the Bolts. Quinto had 15 points including a dunk that capped that key run that got the Bolts ahead, 79-75. Maliksi finished with 15 points.
Some of the points of the Bolts down the stretch were the result of the hustle of Hodge, who got Meralco a lot of second-chance opportunities in the fourth quarter with nine of his 15 rebounds coming on the offensive end.
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On defense, the Bolts limited the Beermen to 35 points in the second half after trailing, 51-44, at the intermission.
“We just had a game plan that we wanted to do. We felt in the first half, we weren’t really doing the game plan that well. If you noticed, they had a lot of points from turnovers, fastbreak points, they were beating us in a lot of categories.
“But I think we just came out in the second half where we were able to do what we wanted to do,” said Trillo.
June Mar Fajardo had 23 points and 10 rebounds but was well-defended in the late stretch by the collective effort of Raymond Almazan and Brandon Bates.
CJ Perez had 20 points but was in foul trouble for most of the game, ending up with five. Perez scored a buzzer-beating lay-up for a 72-70 lead entering the fourth but the Beermen couldn’t hold on to the slim lead.
Game Two is scheduled on Friday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
The scores:
Meralco 93 – Banchero 18, Newsome 18, Quinto 15, Maliksi 15, Caram 9, Almazan 8, Hodge 7, Bates 2, Pascual 1 Dario 0, Pasaol 0, Jose 0, Torres 0.
San Miguel 86 – Fajardo 23, Perez 20, Lassiter 16, Trollano 9, Tautuaa 5, Cruz 5, Teng 4, Brondial 4, Enciso 0, Ross 0.
Quarters: 19-20; 44-51; 70-72; 93-86.
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