MANILA – Meralco Bolts squandered a lead as high as 17 points before holding off Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings, 103-91, in Game 2 of the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals on Sunday at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Ahead 60-43 early in the third quarter, the Bolts saw their lead turned to a 79-80 deficit midway through the fourth quarter behind consecutive attacks from Gin Kings’ Christian Standhardinger.
The Bolts responded with baskets from Allein Maliksi, Chris Newsome, and Chris Banchero to take an 86-82 lead, but the Gin Kings answered with baskets from Standhardinger to cut it to 87-88.
Meralco then went on with their finishing run as Raymond Almazan drilled back-to-back baskets followed by connections from Newsome, Banchero, and Kier John Quinto to make it a 103-91 lead.
Maliksi anchored the Bolts’ offense with 25 points, while Newsome contributed 20 points, four rebounds, three assists, and a steal as they knotted the best-of-seven series at 1-1.
Hodge posted a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Banchero tallied 10 markers and eight boards for the Bolts, which bounced back from a 92-88 Game 1 loss last Friday.
Bolts head coach Luigi Trillo said his team played more aligned in this game compared to the series-opener, but they are anticipating a bounce back from the Gin Kings in Game 3 on Wednesday.
“This is an important win, we avoided going down 2-0,” Trillo said in a post-game interview. “Game 1 is important but taking Game 2 and made it a (virtual) best-of-five (series) is much better for us.”
“I think we really do some things offensively and defensively, and I think we are more aligned today,” he added. “There are still some things that we need to work on, we know they will be back and we just have to be ready.”
Standhardinger finished with a career-high of 41 points and 11 rebounds for the Gin Kings, but failed to get much-needed support as only Maverick Ahanmisi and Stanley Pringle contributed double-digits offense with 14 and 13, respectively./PN
BOX SCORE:
MERALCO 103 – Maliksi 25, Newsome 20, Hodge 13, Banchero 11, Almazan 7, Quinto 7, Mendoza 6, Bates 6, Pascual 5, Caram 3, Rios 0, Torres 0.
GINEBRA 91 – Standhardinger 41, Ahanmisi 14, Pringle 13, J. Aguilar 7, Thompson 6, Cu 6, Onwubere 3, Tenorio 1, David 0, Pinto 0, Murrell 0.
Quarterscores: 32-27, 55-42, 73-74, 103-91.
