Gritty Bolts force Game 7

BOCAUE—A series this beautiful deserves a Game 7 for an ending.

Meralco took its PBA Governors’ Cup title playoffs with Barangay Ginebra to the distance before a boisterous, animated crowd of almost 54,000 on Wednesday night as the Bolts took the best that Gin Kings could offer before pulling out a 98-91 victory at Philippine Arena here.

“This is where you want to be, what we have been thinking of the entire conference,” Meralco coach Norman Black said after his Bolts played with sustained brilliance in a no-tomorrow game to have some sort of a psychological advantage going into Friday’s decider.

“We just want to get it done (in Game 7),” he went on. “One team is going to get it done, that’s for sure, and we just hope that it’s us who does that.”

The Bolts answered the opening tip with all guns locked and loaded. Garvo Lanete got them going from afar with Allen Durham controlling the lanes with impunity as Meralco erected commanding leads early before holding off the crowd-darlings whose calling card has been come-from-behind wins.

“They are really tough to beat, they play hard every game,” Black said of the Kings, who trailed by 20 at one point in the first half before crawling to within four in the stretch. “We had to fight every second (of the game) to beat them.”

Reynel Hugnatan came through with 24 points and the veteran forward’s six triples loosened Ginebra’s interior defense.

“We just have to do it one more time,” Black added. “It comes down to one game for our entire season and I am just happy that my players responded (in this game).”

Durham, the reigning two-time Best Import, took on Ginebra’s twin towers practically by himself, finishing with 28 hard-earned points that went with 19 rebounds as he became an unsolvable puzzle for the Ginebra defense.

“We just couldn’t get over the hump,” Ginebra coach Tim Cone said. “We struggled with our shooting. We can’t spend time feeling bad about this game. We have to go to a Game 7.”

“They dominated us all game long,” Cone went on as Meralco topped the statistical departments that mattered, including assists (24-16), rebounds (51-41), and steals, (8-1).

“Game 7 is an animal all by itself. It’s a 50-50 game that’s why you don’t want to play a Game 7,” he said. “But it’s the best two words in sports.”