Bolts start new year right

MANILA, Philippines — After a powerless end to 2024, Meralco started the New Year on the strongest possible terms.

Spearheaded by Akil Mitchell’s solid all-around outing, the Bolts took down guest team Hong Kong Eastern with a skid-ending 88-83 victory in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup play resumption at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last night.

Mitchell poured 31 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and seven steals as he sparked Meralco to leads that reached a high of nine before local aces Chris Newsome, Bong Quinto and Aaron Black joined the fray in the mop-up to preserve the needed W.

With this, the reigning all-Filipino titlists wheeled back on track after back-to-back losses to Blackwater and Converge during the holidays and improved to 4-2.

Eastern dropped to 6-3 after failing to put Meralco in the company of defending champion San Miguel Beer in its list of victims.

“This is a good one. We did enough to get this grindout win,” said Meralco coach Luigi Trillo, whose team also benefited from active consultant Nenad Vucinic’s familiarity with long-time friend Mensur Bajramovic, the coach of Eastern.

Newsome hit a crucial trey and knocked down two dagger free throws, Quinto went two-for-two and Black made a pivotal up-and-under layup in the final 4:22 that sealed the deal.

Quinto finished with 16 while Newsome and Black had nine apiece in the Meralco bounceback.

Chris McLaughlin’s 28-18 game went down the drain as Eastern failed to complete the steal.

Meralco made several attempts to break away but each time, Eastern fought back and managed to narrow the gap.

The Bolts seized a 19-11 spread late in the opening canto but the HK cagers cut it in half before the period ended.

They took an even bigger lead of nine at 37-28 in the second but Eastern once more rallied and then unleashed an 8-2 closing barrage to get to within manageable levels, 39-36.

Later, Barangay Ginebra clobbered San Miguel Beer, 93-81, in a fiery followup to its epic 95-92 steal versus “Clasico” rival Magnolia last Christmas.  The Gin Kings soared to 5-2 and sent the Beermen reeling to two straight defeats and 3-4.