PBA: Aaron Black, KJ McDaniels deliver when Meralco needed them most

Meralco Bolts’ Aaron Black. –PBA IMAGES

MANILA, Philippines—When Meralco’s primary plan of shutting down Converge import Jamaal Franklin failed, the Bolts relied on two of its key players to deliver the goods.

Defense is usually the cornerstone of good offense and that’s exactly what coach Norman Black had in mind in Meralco’s 132-129 overtime win over Converge in the PBA Governors’ Cup tournament on Friday.

However, Franklin, still came up huge with a stellar triple-double of 57 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists.

“Tonight, a lot of focus was on Franklin because he handles the ball majority of the time. He can make shots, threes, get to the basket, get to the foul line and he doesn’t miss from the foul line. A lot of our defense was set on how to control him and not make him explode too much against us even though he eventually did,” told Black at Araneta Coliseum.

And when their defense failed, all they did was defend even more aggressively while finding KJ McDaniels and Player of the Game Aaron Black on offense.

“In overtime, we just gutted it out with defense and try to get as many stops. As much as possible we wanted to get the basketball to KJ or Aaron because that’s what’s been working for us,” explained the top coach.

The Bolts doubled down on Franklin in the extra period, frustrating him to take his sixth foul and ejection from the game.

Two Meralco players try to stop Converge import Jamaal Franklin. –PBA IMAGES

Meanwhile, McDaniels held his own against his import counterpart with a double-double of 33 points and 12 rebounds. 

Black finished with an all-around effort of 28 markers, eight boards and five dimes but made sure to acknowledge his teammates in the process.

“[I give] credit to my teammates. As you can see in the end part, Raymond (Almazan) was sealing the other bigs for me to get layups so this (win) is credited to my bigs and team for finding me,” the playmaker said.

Black also acknowledged his backup point guard’s nerves of steel in overtime.

“This was a whole team effort for us. KJ came up big in the end and Anjo (Caram) sealed it with two big free throws.”

WATCH: Meralco’s Allein Maliksi is ejected late in overtime against Converge for a Flagrant Foul 2 on Barkley Ebona. | @jonasterradoINQ pic.twitter.com/l8SSsysF8c

— INQUIRER Sports (@INQUIRERSports) March 3, 2023

Caram barely played in regulation but was inserted by the coaching staff in the dying seconds of OT after a scuffle between Allein Maliksi and Barkley Eboña.

He was given the gargantuan task of sinking two technical free throws and coolly sank it to give the Bolts a four-point lead that they would hang on to until the buzzer.

Coach Black was also quick to explain his stance in the endgame brawl, saying he was only in the court to defend his wards.

“I just truly believe that if there’s any type of rumble, you should grab your own players. I tried to stop Allein, that was my whole purpose of being there.”

The win put Meralco in a two-way tie with aforementioned FiberXers in the fifth seed with twin records of six wins and four losses.