The Meralco Bolts need to talk seriously on how to finish off games. In their last game against Blackwater, they managed to put some order on the PBA Governors' Cup form charts – but just barely.
It took the heroics of Chris Banchero and Chris Newsome and a costly error by Blackwater in the dying seconds before the Bolts could survive the Bossing, 116-114, last 21 July at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
For a long while, Meralco seemed to have the game well under control after going to the fourth period with a 98-91 lead and even stretched the difference to a seemingly impregnable 110-92 count, still 7:35 to go.
Then Blackwater staged an epic comeback, tying the game up at 114-all and even getting the chance to take the upper hand inside the final 35 seconds.
Sadly for the Bossing, however, both Sedrick Barefield and Kentrell Barkley missed their respective tries and Banchero was able to snag the rebound and issue a fastbreak pass to Newsome, whose layup made it 116-114, only 3.9 ticks left.
Whatever hopes Blackwater may have had of at least equalizing vanished when RK Ilagan dribbled off his foot with the ball going to the backcourt just before the final buzzer sounded.
"You have to give Blackwater credit," said Meralco coach Luigi Trillo after his team notched a second straight win to catch Blackwater at 2-1 in Group B.
"I think we were up in the third quarter by 17 points. They have no quit and that’s a testament to what coach Pat’s been doing there. They’re playing really good," added Trillo. "Good na lang that we were able to shoot that last shot on that pass to 'New.'"
Despite scoring only a point in the entire second half Antonio Hester still led Meralco with 25 points on top of 12 rebounds. Newsome and Banchero added 16 apiece with the latter’s output anchored mostly on three 4-pointers.
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