MANILA, Philippines — Can strong-willed Meralco stop the San Miguel Beer juggernaut?
If you ask the Bolts, the resilient bunch who have turned things around after teetering on the brink of elimination in both the preliminaries and the semifinals, the answer is a big yes.
“Obviously, we go into this conference and it’s not we want to (just) make the finals; it’s we want to win the finals,” Meralco star Chris Banchero said after the Bolts dispatched Ginebra in the semis rubbermatch, 78-69, in San Jose, Batangas.
The Bolts’ mental toughness amid adversity has been evident in this campaign.
Initially, the squad lost three of its first five games and stood at 11th in the standings. But it cranked it up, winning five of their next seven matches to reach the playoffs as third seeds.
In the best-of-seven Final Four against the Gin Kings, the Bolts blew a 2-1 lead and went down, 2-3. But they stayed alive in Game 6, 86-81, before getting the job done on the road to earn a shot against the defending champions.
With MVP Group honcho Manny V. Pangilinan’s full support and encouragement, Meralco’s faith didn’t waver all throughout.
“We had a meeting with MVP when we were down 3-2 and he told us to believe and we did,” related Banchero.
This won’t change as they face the mighty Beermen in a challenging race-to-four beginning Wednesday.
“We’re going against the top team of this conference and they won the championship last year. They have a really good team and a really good coaching staff. But so do we,” said Banchero.
Giving the Bolts added confidence is the fact that they handed the Beermen their first loss of the conference after a 10-0 start in the elims, 87-80.
Then there’s the high from the 4-3 victory over old rival Ginebra. It was their second playoffs win over the Gin Kings after losing the previous six duels.
“Big for the organization. At Meralco, we have a lot of pride in what we do and we’re going to savor this,” said coach Luigi Trillo.
“I was telling Chris on the bus ride home, malungkot ‘yun kung talo na naman,” he added.