San Mig Coffee’s depth key in Game 1 win over Meralco Bolts

MANILA, Philippines — Meralco’s defensive game plan focused on stopping San Mig Coffee import Marqus Blakely, JamesYap and PJ Simon.

The Bolts’ strategy worked to some extent with Blakely held to just 15 points on measly eight attempts from the field while Yap also had 15 points on six-of-17 shooting and PJ Simon scored only seven points.

What Meralco wasn’t able to anticipate though, was the production of San Mig Coffee forward Joe Devance.

Devance knocked in a personal conference-high 17 points to lead the Mixers to an 83-73 win over the Bolts in Game 1 of their best-of-five semifinals series Sunday night.

Bolts head coach Ryan Gregorio was pleased with his team’s defense which was able to contain the Mixers’ explosive scorers but just couldn’t put the clamps down on their “fourth guy.”

And that fourth player Gregorio referred to happened to be Devance.

“That speaks volumes of the kind of roster that they have,” said Gregorio, pertaining to San Mig Coffee’s depth.

Devance gave Meralco fits particularly at the offensive end with his size and outside shooting. The 31-year-old shot three-of-four from long range with 10 of his points coming in the final quarter.

Rookie Alex Mallari also came away with a solid effort with 12 points — missing just one out of his four attempts from long distance — to go along with three rebounds and two assists.

Meralco looks to even the series in Game 2 set on Tuesday at 7:15pm at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.