Games Wednesday
(Ninoy Aquino Stadium)
5 p.m. – Terrafirma vs Blackwater
7:30 p.m. – NLEX vs TNT
MANILA, Philippines — Meralco zapped top-ranked NorthPort, 111-94, to crowd the upper half of the team standings and stay in hunt for a quarterfinal bonus in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Tuesday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The Bolts, with their main guys slowly but surely barging back to action after nursing injuries all-conference long, pulled away in the second quarter behind a 19-9 rally to close the half with a double-digit lead on their way to a dominant win.
One of them was seasoned guard Chris Banchero, who uncorked 25 points on 10-of-15 clip laced by four rebounds, six assists and a steal as the full-strength Meralco side leaped to 6-3 to forge a logjam at third spot.
Meralco is currently tied with Ginebra, guest team Hong Kong Eastern and Converge (which was to play second-running Rain or Shine at press time), all of which were beaten by NorthPort in an impressive giant-killing spree, in a tightrope race to the Top Two for a win-once playoff bonus.
Super import Akil Mitchell dropped 30 points, 13 rebounds, three assists and five steals to anchor the way, with Chris Newsome adding 15 points against the Batang Pier, the tourney’s biggest revelation atop of the 13-team standings.
Eight more players racked up the board led by Bong Quinto and Jansen Rios with eight points each. CJ Cansino and Jolo Mendoza chipped in seven and six points, respectively.
But for head coach Luigi Trillo, it was Meralco’s defense that spelled the difference in toppling the usually potent NorthPort firepower, which settled for a dismal 3-of-16 shooting from downtown with 14 turnovers.
“NorthPort has been playing really good basketball. They deserved every win as they’ve been taking down a lot of quality teams. They’re the real deal but today, we just played better defensively,” said Trillo, whose wards only had nine errors and shot 45% from the field.
“We know this team can score with the likes of Joshua (Munzon), Arvin (Tolentino), Will (Navarro) and Kadeem (Jack) but our bench came out. It’s an all-around effort.”
Meralco was coming off a 105-91 win over NLEX last week and just picked up where it left off by setting the tone in the first half with Mitchell and Banchero at the helm.
Tied at 35 in the last five minutes, the Bolts made the Batang Pier bleed for just nine points the rest of the half to erect a 54-44 separation at the turn. There was no looking back for Trillo’s troops from there on, leading by as many as 22 points before settling for an 18-point win.
“It’s an important game for us. I was excited to play NorthPort because they’re playing the best this conference. We really wanted to see where we ate at as a team and we responded well. We did a very good job,” added Banchero.
Jack, who collared 29 points and 14 rebounds, drew ample support from hotshot Tolentino (19), PBA Pres Corps-Pilipinas Live Player of the Week Munzon (12) and Navarro (11) but to no avail for NorthPort, which albeit kept the pole position at 7-2.
The scores:
Meralco 111 – Mitchell 30, Banchero 25, Newsome 15, Quinto 8, Rios 8, Cansino 7, Mendoza 6, Caram 5, Almazan 4, Reyson 2, Pascual 1, Bates 0, Hodge 0, Torres 0
Northport 94 – Jack 29, Tolentino 19, Munzon 12, Navarro 11, Nelle 8, Onwubere 7, Miranda 5, Yu 3, Flores 0, Bulanadi 0, Taha 0, Cuntapay 0, Tratter 0
Quarterscores: 24-21, 54-44, 82-69, 111-94.