‘It’s hard’: Meralco’s losing skid unfamiliar territory for Durham

Allen Durham’s past trips in the PBA Governors’ Cup have always resulted in relative success for him and Meralco.

With Durham carrying the load, the Bolts reached the finals in two straight years but his third time looks to have been given with wrong kind of charm.

Meralco is down in the dumps after losing its sixth straight game, a 99-94 heartbreaker against NorthPort, leaving Durham is perplexed.

“It’s hard, I don’t think I’ve lost this many consecutive games, so it’s new to me,” said Durham Friday at Mall of Asia Arena. “I don’t understand, we play hard in practice but in crucial times we’re just not smart and we do stuff that shoot us in the leg.”

“This is a type of league where every team is competitive and we play hard so you can’t do that to yourself.”

The Bolts’ 1-6 record is the worst start in any conference for the franchise while their six-game losing streak equaled another mark in their history.

Meralco could’ve turned it around had it maintained its drive in the fourth quarter after it cut down NorthPort’s 10-point lead to just two, 90-88, with a 14-6 run.

Stanley Pringle and Sean Anthony, however, made clutch threes for the Batang Pier’s 98-91 lead with 24 seconds remaining that effectively finished off the Bolts.

“I think they were up by 10 or something, then we’d climb back, but we could never get over the hump you know? That’s what killed us in the end,” said Durham who finished with 37 points, 19 rebounds, and seven assists.

Durham added there’s nothing left to do for them but to fight back and try to correct the trajectory they’re in.

“I know that we have a chance for the playoffs still, and we’ve got to play for pride,” said Durham whose team sits at the 10th spot with a 1-6 card. “We just have some respect for ourselves, we have to come out and play hard.”