MERALCO is the walking wounded team of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
On Thursday night, the Bolts had six local players and two imports on the injury list and had to make do with an 11-man roster in a 114-98 loss to Blackwater at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The injured list includes Raymond Almazan, Chris Banchero, Allein Maliksi, Brandon Bates, Jolo Mendoza, and rookie CJ Cansino along with imports Akil Mitchell and DJ Kennedy.
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A ninth player, Bong Quinto, is also nursing a hurting right knee, but valiantly played through the injury to help the Meralco cause, finishing with 19 points in the loss that snapped the team’s perfect record that now stands at 3-1.
“Bugbog na kami,” said Meralco coach Luigi Trillo afterwards.
Kennedy showed up in playing uniform and wanted to play, but was told by the Meralco support staff that he could aggravate his calf injury if ever he suited up.
Nonetheless, Trillo was proud of the effort put up by his undermanned team led by Chris Newsome.
“I think we did well, we did enough. We’re down by one with eight minutes left. And then we fell apart,” said the Meralco mentor.
The Bolts will have Friday off before getting back to practice before leaving for South Korea next week to battle reigning Korean Basketball League (KBL) champions Busan KCC Egis on Dec. 18.
They won’t be playing in the mid-season conference again until Christmas Day when they take on the Converge FiberXers.
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