Meralco Bolts down San Miguel to clinch Govs’ Cup top spot

Delfin Dioquino

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Meralco Bolts down San Miguel to clinch Govs’ Cup top spot
Meralco overturns a 16-point deficit to finish the eliminations at 9-3

MANILA, Philippines – The Meralco Bolts came back from a 16-point deficit to clinch the top spot heading into the quarterfinals and pushed the San Miguel Beermen to sixth place, 104-101, on the final day of the 2017 PBA Governors’ Cup at the Big Dome Sunday, September 24.

San Miguel held an 83-69 lead following a Marcio Lassiter jumper at the start of the fourth period before Meralco rode on a 18-6 run, sparked by a Mike Tolomia trey and back-to-back baskets from Ranidel de Ocampo, to come close by two points, 87-89.

The Beermen went on a 7-0 spurt but the Bolts answered with a 13-2 run of their own built on consecutive treys from Allen Durham and Jared Dillinger to lead 100-98 with 58.3 seconds left in the game.

Chris Ross buried a trey to put San Miguel back in the front seat before Allen Durham scored a putback with 27.1 remaining for a 102-101 Meralco lead.

San Miguel tried to score but missed 4 of its attempts as Durham secured the insurance free throws for Meralco which improved to 9-3.

“Great second half for our team, tried to make adjustments at halftime because we played horrible basketball in the first half. It took us a long time before we got our bearings but towards the end of the game, the lineup we had on the floor with JD (Jared Dillinger) and Cliff Hodge on the 4 and 3 really worked out for us. And of course, AD (Allen Durham) picked it up in the second half offensively which helped us a lot,” said Meralco coach Norman Black.

Meralco shot 37 percent from the field in the first half before catching fire in the second half, burying 60 percent of its attempts.

 

Allen Durham flirted with a triple-double performance of 35 points, with 25 coming in the second half, 13 rebounds and 8 assists while Jared Dillinger added 16 points and 5 boards.

June Mar paced the Beermen with 26 points and 8 rebounds while Terrence Watson and Marcio Lassiter added 18 apiece.

 

Although the Beermen, who had the chance to place either first or second prior to the game, have identical 7-4 cards with the Star Hotshots and the NLEX Road Warriors, they still dropped to sixth place because of an inferior quotient.

 

Star, thanks to Meralco’s win, became the last team to clinch the twice-to-beat advantage, joining top 4 teams Meralco, TNT and Ginebra.

Quarterfinals matchups

(1) Meralco vs Blackwater (8)

(2) TNT vs Rain or Shine (7)

(3) Ginebra vs San Miguel (6)

(4) Star vs NLEX (5)


Scores:  

Meralco (104): Durham 35, Dillinger 16, Newsome 14, Amer 13, Hodge 8, Tolomia 8, De Ocampo 6, Hugnatan 2, Nabong 2, Lanete 0

San Miguel (101): Fajardo 26, Lassiter 18, Watson 18, Cabagnot 16, Ross 10, Santos 6, Ganuelas 4, Espinas 3, Pessumal 0 

Quarter scores: 19-32, 39-51, 69-81, 104-101. – Rappler.com

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Delfin Dioquino

Delfin Dioquino dreamt of being a PBA player, but he did not have the skills to make it. So he pursued the next best thing to being an athlete – to write about them. He took up journalism at the University of Santo Tomas and joined Rappler as soon as he graduated in 2017.