Meralco Bolts vs Ginebra Kings. PBA IMAGES
The Meralco Bolts played in front of the biggest crowd they had seen and relished the environment.
The Bolts silenced Barangay Ginebra and its fans, who made up a large cut of the 14,522-strong audience, with a 114-109 overtime victory in Game 1 of the PBA Governors Cup championship series Friday night at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“We just hung in there, then the offense just clicked. There’s nothing magical about it, it was just a good finishing kick,” said Meralco coach Norman Black.
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“The importance of winning Game 1 was right there for us and we just grabbed it. This will give us the edge in Game 2,” he added.
Allen Durham provided the power for that finishing kick, scoring seven of his 46 points in the extra period to seal the victory.
“AD was the driving force for us. We got off to a good start (in the series) and we’re going back to the drawing board to prepare for Game 2,” said Black.
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Ginebra forced overtime off an LA Tenorio floater in the dying seconds. Tenorio finished with a career-high 36 points. And even if all that went for naught, it did catch Black’s attention.
“Nobody can guard LA Tenorio. Anjo [Caram] is a defensive guard and he couldn’t contain him. Sometimes you just have to roll the dice,” said Black. “I’ll find out what to do against LA when I go home tonight.”
Another big cause for a celebration aside from winning the series opener was the record-tying milestone of Jimmy Alapag in the all-time most three-pointers made.
Jimmy Alapag now shares the record with shooting legend Allan Caidic. Both of them have 1,242 threes after Alapag, the 2011 MVP, nailed a triple with 33.4 seconds left that gave Meralco a 101-100 edge.
Game 2 is set tomorrow at the Big Dome, after the awarding of the conference’s top performers.