Meralco rallies from 20 down to shock Air21

Brian Butch of Meralco (dark) vs Aldrech Ramos of Air21 (light). PBA IMAGE by Nuki Sabio

MANILA, Philippines — Meralco worked their way back from a 20-point hole to shock Air21, 109-98, in the 2014 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Import Brian Butch scored 40 points and grabbed 31 rebounds to lead the Bolts’ comeback in the fourth quarter, where they outscored the Express, 41-12.

Butch alone dominated Air21 in the final frame with 21 points while Jared Dillinger had 13 of his 20 points in the final 12 minutes.

“That was really an 80s, 90s throwback percormance by Witherspoon. I’ve never seen anything like it,” marveled Meralco coach Ryan Gregorio of Air21’s new import Wesley Witherspoon, who finished with 44 points in his PBA debut.

“And good thing our special defense in the fourth quarter worked against him that kind of stymied him a little bit.”

Witherspoon already had 39 points after three quarters but he cooled off in the fourth period with only five points as the Bolts’ defense clamped down on him.

The Bolts trailed, 66-86, with 1:07 remaining in the third quarter before going on an 11-0 run to start the fourth quarter that got them going.

Witherspoon tried to restore order for Air21 when his eighth and final triple of the night pushed their lead back to 14, 91-77, with 8:29 to go. But another triple by Joseph Yeo still had the Express comfortably ahead, 96-83.

Yeo’s basket though, would be Air21’s last field goal in the final seven minutes and 12 seconds of the game as Meralco went on a 26-2 surge to end the game.

Dillinger finally put the Bolts ahead, 99-98, on an up-and-under move on Witherspoon before attacking Yeo’s defense on back-to-back possessions to pad on to his team’s lead, 104-98, with only 38.7 seconds remaining.

Butch, the six-foot-nine center with the feathery touch, scored Meralco’s last five points at the stripe to seal the Bolts’ third win in five games.

“Fantasitc win. I’m an import. There’s always pressure. To me it was just another game,” said Butch.

Air21 dropped to 2-3 despite drawing quite a performance from the 24-year-old Witherspoon, who went 12-of-18 from the field and 12-of-12 at the line.

“We had to double team. No one man can stop that guy. We haven’t seen him play. All we got were got were highlights from YouTube, all we saw in that YouTube is he can really make shots. We didn’t realize he can put the ball on the floor on three or four dribbles to the basket,” said Gregorio.

The Bolts made sure the ball wouldn’t end up in Witherspoon’s hands as they made their comeback.

“I thought Borboran had some open shots, Atkins had some open shots, Camson had some open shots. It was pretty much anybody except Witherspoon and it worked.”

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