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[av_heading heading=’ Meralco enlists Canaleta, Baracael for PBA Philippine Cup ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY ADRIAN STEWART CO
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MANILA – After falling short of winning a PBA title for the second straight year, Meralco Bolts bolstered its lineup for the 2017-2018 season with the addition of 3-point gunners Niño Canaleta and Mac Baracael.
Canaleta and Baracael were welcome additions, especially with most Bolts veteran players still unavailable for the Philippine Cup opening next Sunday due to injuries, head coach Norman Black said.
“In the all-Filipino, it gives us another way to win games,” Black said. “We don’t have a dominant low post threat so the more outside shooters we have, the better chances we have of getting baskets.”
“We try to make sure the opposing team does not always double-team the post because they’ll have to guard the outside, too,” he added. “We wanted players who can create openings for our import.”
Meralco also shored up its frontline with big men Jason Ballesteros and Nico Salva, both released by Kia Picanto during the offseason.
“We’re looking at the entire year. We’re not just looking at the all-Filipino conference,” Black said. “We don’t have the dominant bigs that the other teams have so we wanted to get players who could space the floor for us.”
Unlike the other teams, Bolts was very much behind in preparations for the new season, especially with their Governors’ Cup finals series against Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings stretched to seven games.
“We’re a little bit behind other teams,” said Black. “They started a month or three weeks before we did but we felt that we needed to give the guys some rest because we had a really long season that finished late.”/PN
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