Darnell Jackson of Meralco (dark) vs Raymond Almazan of Rain or Shine (light). PBA IMAGE by NUKI SABIO
MANILA, Philippines — Meralco import Darnell Jackson, breathing heavily, could hardly drag his tired legs down the court late in the Bolts’ 94-91 win over Rain or Shine.
But the big-bodied Jackson wasn’t the only one battling fatigue Monday night.
“Saw them cramping up towards the end and I was just telling our import, ‘it cannot be us more tired than them, it has to be them more tired than us,'” Meralco head coach Ryan Gregorio told reporters after his team gained a 1-0 lead in a best-of-three quarterfinals in the 2014 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
And true enough, Jackson gasped a second wind – providing Meralco’s last four points – in the final 1:09 of the game.
“So we just took advantage of the fatigue factor primarily because of last day’s game and we just made sure that we would pounce on our edge,” said Gregorio.
The Elasto Painters were at the tailend of their back-to-back after outlasting the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings, 105-101, in overtime Sunday night.
The former NBA veteran Jackson didn’t have a good shooting night going 12-of-32 from the field but he made the shots that counted as he wound up with 30 points to go along with 15 rebounds and four assists.
With the Bolts down one, Jackson put his team ahead on a jumper 92-91 with 1:09remaining before nailing another jumper – a step back – over the outstretched arms of Wayne Chism with 10.2 ticks left.
“And good enough he was able to bail us out with those two big shots to salvage a victory against a very very very tough and resilient Rain or Shine team,” Gregorio added.
A win away from knocking off the higher-seeded Painters, Gregorio knows there’s no time for letting up, especially with the Bolts bowing out of the quarterfinals in the last two Commissioner’s Cup conferences despite taking a 1-0 edge.
“We’ve been in this situation before and we’re not able to close it but experience is always the best teacher so hopefully now with more intelligence and a little more experience on our end we know in a best-of-three series we don’t really win the series until we get two wins.”
Gary David scored 22 of his 27 points in the second half while Dillinger added 15 for the fifth-seeded Meralco.
Chism followed up his big 30-point output against Ginebra with 27 points while Paul Lee contributed 15 for ROS.
Lee had the chance to force the extension but his 3-point attempt got blocked by Cliff Hodge, who recovered his footing in time after getting crossed up by Lee’s fancy dribbling, as time ran out.
“Now we brace ourselves for that big Rain or Shine fightback on Wednesday and we’ll be ready.”
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