Basketball
Meralco routs Petron Blaze to notch first win
After falling short of securing a win on opening day, the Meralco Bolts made sure they wouldn’t be denied this time.
Against the Petron Blaze Boosters, the Bolts came out with a high-energy performance and were rewarded with a huge 105-83 victory on Wednesday night in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Cuneta Astrodome.
The Bolts took full advantage of the one area where they knew they had the edge over a very talented Boosters squad – the speed game. Meralco scored 25 points off of fastbreaks as compared to just 14 for Petron.
“I have strong faith in my team but I have always told them to always look for the edge. Yes, they’re deeper than us, but we found our edge on fastbreaks and obviously the 25 points that we scored on fastbreaks was a big edge for us,” said Meralco coach Ryan Gregorio.
The Bolts broke into the win column nearly a week after conceding a tight 96-93 contest to the B-MEG Llamados on their first game. The win allowed them to forge a three-way tie for the third to fifth places with the Alaska Aces and Barako Bull Energy at 1-1.
For Gregorio, splitting their first two games against two elite teams in B-MEG and Petron is a big relief. His team will face yet another tough challenge, though, when it takes on sister team Talk ‘N Text on Friday at the Cuneta Astrodome.
“With a short tournament, it’s important to win as many games as possible. I’m happy we won this one against an elite team in Petron, but we will be facing yet another elite squad in Talk ‘N Text. And when you face an elite team, it’s not enough that you work hard, but you have to combine it with intelligence.”
The Bolts did more than just run and score on transition plays. They were also able to hold Arwind Santos to only two points, his lowest output since last season’s Commissioner’s Cup.
A strong candidate for the Best Player of the Conference award in the recently concluded Philippine Cup, Santos scored his first basket at the last five-minute mark of the fourth period.
“Mark Borboran played huge on both ends of the court. He was able to defend Arwind Santos well,” said Gregorio.
Borboran finished with a double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds on top of his defensive effort.
The Bolts unloaded 31 points in the second period while limiting the Boosters to only 17 as Meralco broke away, 56-39, and never looked back.
The scores:
Meralco (105) – Famous 26, Borboran 18, Cardona 16, Espinas 13, Artadi 8, Ross 7, Macapagal 6, Taulava 6, Hugnatan 5, Yee 0.
Petron (83) – Fazekas 33, Cabagnot 15, Lutz 11, Ildefonso 8, Yeo 6, Miranda 3, Reyes 2, Santos 2, Tugade 2, Al-Hussaini 1.
Quarterscores: 25-22; 56-39; 78-62; 105-83.
