MERALCO didn’t allow Robert Bolick to get on track early on and hammered out a 100-81 win over NLEX to clinch a semifinals seat in the PBA Philippine Cup Sunday.
Chris Banchero led the Bolts’ offense with 23 points, Cliff Hodge and Allein Maliksi each had 14 while the rest of the team took care of defense that saw Meralco held the explosive Bolick to just 18 points.
The NLEX top gun had a career-high 48 points in the Game 1 loss.
The Bolts will now face rival Barangay Ginebra Kings in the best-of-seven semifinals.
“Robert Bolick is a hell of a player. I think it is just in the second half when we kind of outplay them in terms of what we needed to do,” said Meralco coach Luigi Trillo. “Robert Bolick is hard to defend and you have to tire him out. And it takes certain things that we needed to do (to limit him).”
Bolick's performance was lackluster, shooting just 6-of-18 from the field as NLEX concluded its season with a two-game sweep by the Bolts.
The ouster of the Road Warriors also endangers Bolick’s bid for a first ever Best Player of the Conference award, a race which he currently led entering the playoffs.
Bong Quinto finished with 13 and Chris Newsome had 12 and nine rebounds for the Bolts, who led by as many as 22 points.
Rookie Dominic Fajardo and Rob Herndon finished in double digits for NLEX with 15 and 11, respectively.
The scores
Meralco (100) -- Banchero 23, Hodge 14, Maliksi 14, Quinto 13, Newsome 12, Almazan 10, Caram 5, Torres 5, Pasaol 2, Bates 2.
NLEX (81) -- Bolick 18, Fajardo 15, Herndon 11, Rodger 10, Semerad 9, Amer 5, Marcelo 5, Valdez 5, Miranda 3, Nieto 0, Anthony 0.
Quarterscores: 27-26; 52-49; 76-70; 100-81.
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