Meralco Bolts’ Tony Bishop. PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines—Meralco took its second straight win at the expense of struggling Terrafirma, 107-95, to stay at the second spot of the 2021 PBA Governors’ Cup Thursday at Ynares Center in Antipolo.
With Terrafirma hanging on early in the game, Meralco slowly pulled away midway through the second with Tony Bishop nailing a jumper for his team’s 49-37 lead with 6:08 to play in the first half.
Meralco head coach Norman Black said his team’s lone loss so far, a 109-98 defeat to NorthPort, still lingered in their minds so that pushed they to play quick and honest basketball to maintain their place in the standings.
“The loss to NorthPort was still in our minds, we didn’t wanna stumble again. The elimination round is coming to an end pretty soon and everybody’s fighting for positions and we want to stay at the top four,” said Black.
“We didn’t want to fall to Terrafirma and we wanted to come out, run as much as possible, and play good defense. We had a lot of fastbreak points tonight and when you get easy points it helps your offense a lot.”
Newsome 🚀🚀🚀
Maliksi 👉🏼 Newsome alley oop slam!
107-86 Meralco #PBAiTuloyAngLaban pic.twitter.com/Y3tV2B74nk
— PBA (@pbaconnect) February 24, 2022
The Bolts improved to a 6-1 record to move one game behind league leader Magnolia, which holds a perfect 6-0 slate, while the Dyip skidded to their second straight defeat and stayed at the 10th seed.
The Bolts were a tad too quick for the Dyip in their matchup as they ran to 20 fastbreak points.
Bishop finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds, and two steals for Meralco while Allein Maliksi added 18 points, four rebounds, six assists, and two steals.
Cliff Hodge and Bong Quinto also finished in double figures for the Bolts with 16 and 11 points, respectively.
Antonio Hester led Terrafirma with 23 points and 17 rebounds.