Undermanned Bolts jolt Clickers with stiff defense

MANILA, Philippines - Crippled by injuries, Meralco leaned heavily on defense to top Shopinas.com, 79-72, in the 2011-12 PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last night.

The Bolts dragged the Clickers in a tough defensive battle, coming up with crucial stops and putting in enough points to break into the win-column after losing their season debut against the Talk n Text Tropang Texters last Friday.

“We knew it’s going to be an ugly game because we intended to make it hard for them to score in the hope of putting us in a position to win,” said Meralco coach Ryan Gregorio.

“I was really hoping that this conference would be a great trial conference for us if Sol Mercado and Macmac Cardona can play together. But what happened was that they got injured together. We have to put emphasis on defense without our scorers,” Gregorio added.

Mercado and Cardona are out with a knee injury and a sprained ankle, respectively. Worse, the team is also missing the services of two other key players in Chris Ross and Reynel Hugnatan.

“We’re without four of our best players but it’s not a reason to cry. We’ll find ways to win,” said Gregorio.

Find ways to win Meralco did versus Shopinas through an efficient defense that limited the Clickers to a 32.6-percent shooting and forced them to commit two errors inside the final minute.

Asi Taulava scored on a post-up play and Mark Macapagal buried two free throws in pouncing on the Shopinas crucial turnovers to make it 79-72 with 14.3 seconds left to play.

Taulava finished with 10 rebounds and seven points while Gabby Espinas, Macapagal, Mark Isip and Mark Yee wound up with at least 10 points each as Meralco dealt Shopinas a second loss in as many games.

Paolo Hubalde scored a career-high 21 points to pace the Clickers.

Down by 12 at 69-57, the Clickers employed a full-court pressing defense to rally to within three, 72-75, with 1:06 left to play.

Earlier, Meralco was headed to the halftime break with a good cushion only to fall into a series of errors, enabling Shopinas to score six points in the last 13 seconds.

Coach Tim Cone earned his first win outside the Alaska Milk organization at the expense of Alaska Milk itself.

B-Meg fought back from an early 15-point deficit and, behind three-point bombs by Josh Urbiztondo, beat Alaska at the finish, squeezing out an 81-75 win in the nightcap.

NOTES: SBP and PBA officials had their initial meeting Tuesday for the formation of Smart Gilas II. They will have continuing talks, hopeful of coming up with a formula that will spell success for the national team in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship. The next meeting will be set when the SBP is ready with its calendar of activities for the next two years…B-MEG governor Rene Pardo, the members of the coaching staff and some B-MEG fans appeared in the venue last night wearing necktie in show of morale support to coach Tim Cone…Alton Lister, the NBA veteran who used to work as skills coach for the SMC teams, is now with Meralco.

The scores:

 Meralco 79 – Espinas 16, Macapagal 14, Isip 11, Yee 10, Lanete 8, Taulava 7, Borboran 6, Timberlake 5, Omolon 2, Ballesteros 0.

Shopinas.com 72 – Hubalde 21, Menor 9, Sena 7, Duncil 7, Ritualo 7, Mirza 6, Se 6, Hermida 4, Sison 2, Jazul 2, Canlas 1, Espiritu 0.

Quarterscores: 9-11, 32-31, 58-52, 79-72

Second Game

B-Meg 81 – Yap J. 20, Urbiztondo 12, Raymundo 12, Simon 11, De Vance 10, Reavis 8, Pingris 6, Ferriols 2, Barroca 0, Acuna 0, Maierhofer 0, Yap R. 0.

Alaska 75 – Thoss 18, Reyes 15, Tenorio 11, Baguio 10, Dela Cruz 9, Baracael 4, Custodio 4, Eman 3, Bugia 1, Cablay 0.

Quarterscores: 9-21, 35-37, 61-56, 81-75