PBA IMAGE
Rookie Chris Newsome led a fourth quarter charge and Meralco beat Star anew, 90-86, in the 2016 Oppo PBA Commissioner’s Cup Wednesday night at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Newsome scored 11 of his 16 points in the final seven minutes and 55 seconds for the Bolts, whose only win last conference came at the Hotshots’ expense.
Arinze Onuaku, who replaced injured Malcolm Thomas as the Bolts’ import, had a stellar PBA debut with 25 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field and 22 rebounds despite arriving in Manila less than 24 hours ago.
“It has been a whirlwind of a week for us at Meralco. We brought Malcolm Thomas in who I think is a really good player and he hurt his knee in one of our practice games so we had to find a replacement in four days and fortunately for us Arinze was available and he was willing to fly in,” said Meralco head coach Norman Black.
“Arinze arrived just last night, 12 midnight and I’m sure he’s a pretty tired guy right now, but I thought he showed a lot of leadership for us today,” Black added. “He covered a lot of our weaknesses particularly as far as rebounding and interior defense and of course he made the big shot down the stretch to help us win the game.”
Onuaku, who was supposed to be San Miguel Beer’s import in last year’s Commissioner’s Cup, made the game-clinching basket, 90-86, on a hook shot off his left hand over Star’s returning import Denzel Bowles with 17.1 seconds left.
“I thought Chris Newsome’s ability to post up down the stretch made a big difference,” Black said.
Cliff Hodge added 12 points and seven rebounds while another rookie in Baser Amer contributed for Meralco with 10 points off the bench.
“I give a lot of credit to my local players who have worked hard this season to try and erase what happened last conference. Everybody was really focused on trying to get off to a good start this conference,” said Black.
“It’s a big win for us guys, you just don’t know how big it is for us after coming off a 1-10 conference.”
Bowles led the Hotshots with 20 points and 15 rebounds while Mark Barroca just missed a triple-double with 11 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
PJ Simon added 12 points, including a rare four-point play that trimmed Meralco’s lead down to two, 88-86, with 36.1 ticks left.
The Bolts, who trailed, 22-8, in the first quarter, went on a 16-3 run in the final frame to take an 85-75 lead on a basket by Newsome with 3:49 remaining.