PBA: Meralco jolts Alaska to fourth straight loss

Baser Amer leads Meralco. PBA IMAGES

MANILA, Philippines—Meralco put the cudgels on Alaska, 101-75, for its second win in three games in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Friday at Mall of Asia Arena.

The Bolts bounced back from their 105-99 loss to NLEX on Friday and tied Columbian for the fourth place while sending the Aces to a 0-4 card.

Baser Amer capped off Meralco’s 17-5 run in the third quarter to give the Bolts a commanding 62-46 lead.

Meralco then pushed the envelope further in the fourth with Jammer Jamito converting on a jumper for the Bolts’ 101-71 lead with less than two minutes to play.

“We considered this a good bounce-back win coming off our loss to NLEX,” said Bolts head coach Norman Black. “We just got to continue to play solid defense. We always talk about Meralco being a great defensive team but last game against NLEX we didn’t play very good defense.”

“Our defense in the second half was very good, particularly in the third.”

The Bolts limited the Aces to 33.8 percent shooting, 26-of-77, while converting on a 44 percent rate, 37-of-84, on their part of the basket.

Meralco also found the better shots more often than Alaskta, tallying 25 assists to the Aces’ 17.

Amer put up 27 points, on 8-of-15 shooting, with five rebounds and four assists while Allen Durham had 25 points, 15 rebounds, and nine assists.

Simon Enciso and Chris Banchero had 12 points apiece to lead Alaska.

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