MERALCO picked up from where it left off against an in-transition Barangay Ginebra side - at least in preseason play, scoring a 93-86 victory in a tuneup game that heated on Tuesday afternoon at the Meralco gym.
Meralco vs Ginebra tuneup recap
Johnny O’Bryant III flashed his offensive brilliance, scoring inside and out to end up with a game-high 29 points for the Bolts, who beat nemesis Ginebra in a playoff series for the first time in the PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals.
Aaron Black added 23 points, while Chris Banchero, Bong Quinto, and Alvin Pasaol added 11, 10, and eight points, respectively for the Bolts, who make their Commissioner's Cup debut on Sunday against NLEX at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Justin Brownlee and Christian Standhardinger scored 18 and 17 points, respectively, for a Gin Kings side that was in transition due to separate trades that netted them Jamie Malonzo and Von Pessumal from Northport and San Miguel, respectively.
Malonzo and Pessumal were in attendance, but didn’t play on the same day the PBA approved the transactions.
“Anytime you can beat Ginebra, it’s a good day, because they are one of the better teams in the league. But it’s just an exhibition game,” Bolts coach Norman Black said. “Try to take a look at the game and figure out things you can do better, things you did wrong. But I don’t think you can draw too much from it”.
“Our defense is still solid,” he added. "Our defense is normally solid for the most part every time we play, but I thought our offense was a lot smoother today and of course a lot of that has to do with the import, probably scoring a lot of points. But I thought we moved well today.”
The tuneup had playoff atmosphere early when Cliff Hodge and Japeth Aguilar were involved in a commotion in the first quarter.
“I felt like I got hit in the head on the previous play and the refs didn’t call anything. And then I came back and tried to get a hard foul also,” Hodge said. “I was just trying to get the refs’ attention, like, ‘Hey, call something or it’s gonna get ugly.”
“I apologized to Japeth. I apologized to everyone. We’re just out here trying to get better and get ready for the season,” he added.
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