San Mig Mixers trip Meralco Bolts

VAL Acuna of San Mig Coffee (left) tries to steal off Mac Cardona of Meralco in last night’s game that was still being played at presstime at Smart Araneta Coliseum. AUGUST DELA CRUZ

Riding a hot closing run in the third quarter, San Mig Coffee tripped Final Four first-timer Meralco, 83-73, last night to gain the headstart in their PBA Governors’ Cup best-of-five series at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

The Mixers erased a 10-point deficit early in the period with a 17-5 run and then took the momentum of that splurge into the fourth to gain the all-important momentum heading into tomorrow’s second game.

“We just kind of hung around till we finally got something going at the end of the third quarter,” San Mig coach Tim Cone said after they were nearly buried by the Bolts because of a lethargic start.

“We got some momentum and carried it over to the fourth (quarter),” he added. “We were emotionally drained from our last series. We lacked some energy, to tell you in all honesty.”

Joe Devance scored 10 points in the fourth period and Marqus Blakely hit all but two of his 15 in the final two quarters as the Mixers—the losing finalists to Rain or Shine here last season—put the Bolts away.

Meralco had firm control, even taking a 50-40 lead early in the third period before the Mixers got it going and left the Bolts in their wake.

The San Mig defense actually held the Bolts to just four points inside the final 4:42, when John Wilson beat the 24-shot clock with a triple off the glass that had Meralco coming within 69-70.

Meralco wouldn’t score again until the final 1:01, when Cliff Hodge made it 71-79, before Mark Barroca and James Yap had a free throw each for 81-73 going into the last 26.7 seconds.

Blakely was the coldest among Cone’s boys, going scoreless in the first quarter and then making just two free throws in the second to allow Meralco to take control.

Yap also finished with 15 points in his finest offensive game in recent weeks and Alex Mallari broke up the Meralco defensive plan with some timely outside sniping to finish with 12  built around a 3-of-4 clip from three-point zone.

“It was expected that we would have a hard time scoring tonight,” Meralco coach Ryan Gregorio said. “But this is a series, and no one wins a best-of-five without winning three games.

“We were prepared for James (Yap) and PJ (Simon defensively),” Gregorio added. “But the outside shots of (Joe) Devance and (Alex) Mallari broke up our defense.”

Gregorio rued their poor outside shooting with import Mario West being held to a PBA career-low nine points on a 3-of-16 clip from the field in 42 minutes.

The scores:

SAN MIG COFFEE 83—Devance 17, Blakely 15, Yap 15, Mallari 12, Pingris 8, Barroca 7, Simon 7, Reavis 2, Acuna 0, Najorda 0.

MERALCO 73—Hodge 19, Cortez 12, Wilson 10, West 9, Reyes 6, Cardona 6, Hugnatan 6, Dillinger 2, Salvacion 2, Ross 1.

Quarters: 18-22, 35-38, 57-55, 83-73