Meralco stomps Phoenix to return to winning ways

Meralco capped off the one-way tripleheaders at Kapitolyo by plowing over hard-luck Phoenix Super LPG, 91-80 Wednesday’s evening at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.

Norman Black’s Bolts never gave the Fuel Masters a chance of taking the lead for even a millisecond for the entire contest in what was supposed to be an energetic match-up between last season’s losing semifinalists, bouncing back from their deflating loss against Rain or Shine and forced a triple tie with the Painters and San Miguel Beer at 3 wins and a single defeat.

Even with a roof leak that halted play early on, the dynamic duo of Allein Maliksi and Chris Newsome put up a spectacular showing for the former Grand Slam champion mentor, with the former firing in a team-high 24 points and pulled down seven boards while coming off the bench, and the latter nearly flirted with a triple double as he finished the game with 23 points, seven assists and six steals.

Maliksi alone matched the entire Phoenix bench production, with Meralco scoring 14 more points from their reserves, all but three of them came from veteran forward Reynel Hugnatan.

Newsome was well too pleased with the total team effort they have displayed to bounce back after coming at the wrong end of their battle of the unbeaten against ROS.

“Our mindset was defense. It’s very important for us to keep our minds on the defensive end because we can’t allow our offense to dictate how we play. So we want to come out and at least show that defensive intensity throughout the whole game and that’s what got us through today,” Newsome remarked.

Black added that their offense, which was missing from Saturday, turned up this time and then some.

“Our offense was a little bit better. We still had 21 assists which is pretty good. I thought we really did a great job rebounding the basketball,” he said, before setting their sights on their tiff with Alaska on the final day of July.

“If you can control the boards, you can control the game. And that’s what the guys did.”

The Bolts won it despite the Udenna franchise shot better than them, in which they outrebounded them by nineteen and took the ball well and pounced on their turnovers by converting 21 takeaways into 28 points.

After a tense first period, Meralco never looked back in the second period to put away Topex Robinson’s side, even leading by as much sa 21 late in the game after firing in an 11-0 crippler.

The Fuel Masters lost for the third time this season after getting on the board last Saturday, with Matthew Wright’s game-high 29 going down in smoke.

The Scores:

MERALCO 91 – Maliksi 24, Newsome 23, Pinto 11, Hugnatan 11, Belo 9, Almazan 3, Hodge 7, Black 3, Quinto 0, Jackson 0, Canete 0, Jamito 0

PHOENIX 80 – Wright 29, Manuel 13, Jazul 12, Perkins 9, Chua 4, Pascual, 4, Demusis 3, Garcia 3, Faundo 2, Banchero 1, Muyang 0, Melecio 0, Rios 0

Quarter scores: 21-16, 48-32, 73-57, 91-76

PHOTOS: PBA