MERALCO captured its second straight win on Friday by beating NLEX, 101-92, in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Angeles University Foundation Sports Arena and Cultural Center.
Chris Newsome and Allein Maliksi provided the spark for the Bolts, who improved to 3-2 (win-loss) after weathering a last-ditch comeback by the Road Warriors.
NLEX continued to struggle as it fell to 1-4 win-loss, spoiling the 30-point effort of Kiefer Ravena.

Newsome led five Meralco players in double figures with 18 points in a fitting follow-up to his heroics in the Bolts’ overtime win over Magnolia.
Maliksi added 17 points, Baser Amer and Raymond Almazan each had 11, and Cliff Hodge added 10 in a balanced scoring that pleased coach Norman Black.
“That’s what we really want,” said Black. “We want to play as a team. We want to share the basketball. I think we went into the game [at] No. 3 in assists and that’s something that we want to continue to do.”
“We look at teams like Ginebra and how they play, how they share the basketball, and normally they have a lot of success. We also want to be one of those teams that really played with a lot of teamwork and we did it again tonight,” Black said.
Maliksi sparked the breakaway in the third quarter after NLEX momentarily took a 56-54 lead. Meralco scored six unanswered points late in the quarter to enter the fourth holding a 73-65 edge.
NLEX came within four points, 94-90, but Newsome hit a jumper and Maliksi a three-pointer with 1:20 left to all but put the game away.
Black was just as satisfied with the defensive effort of the Bolts.
“I was more impressed with our defense. This is one of the few games this conference were our defense stood out. The guys really followed the game plan and answered to the game plan,” said Black.
Aside from Ravena’s point production, Anthony Semerad and Kevin Alas were the other double-digit scorers for NLEX with 16 points and 10, respectively.
The scores:
Meralco 101 – Newsome 18, Maliksi 17, Amer 11, Almazan 11, Hodge 10, Black 9, Quinto 9, Jamito 7, Hugnatan 6, Jackson 3, Faundo 0, Jose 0, Pinto 0, Caram 0.
NLEX 92 – Ravena 30, Semerad 16, Alas 10, Cruz 9, Porter 8, Ayonayon 7, Soyud 6, Quinahan 6, Faundo 0, Miranda 0, Varilla 0, Ighalo 0.
Quarters: 25-17; 41-39; 73-65; 101-92.
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