PBA Finals: Meralco needs to ‘play with poise’ to close out San Miguel

Meralco Bolts in Game 5 of the PBA philippine Cup Finals against San Miguel Beermen. -MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Playing with poise will be of utmost importance for Meralco as it tries to close out San Miguel in Game 6 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals on Sunday.

According to Chris Banchero, the Bolts will have to play their own brand of basketball if they want to avoid a do-or-die Game 7 against the mighty Beermen.

And Meralco locked in.

There were zero celebrations in the Meralco locker room Friday night despite moving just one win away from their first-ever PBA title.

HIGHLIGHTS: PBA Finals Game 5 San Miguel vs Meralco

“This goes without saying, we know how good their team is. We have to play with a lot of poise heading into this next game, be determined and work hard,” said Banchero on Friday after their thrilling 92-88 win over San Miguel.

“We know they’ll come out and give it their all and we’ll do the same. We know we’re in no position to do anything because we haven’t done anything.”

Banchero did his job for Meralco to get the 3-2 lead after scoring 12 with four rebounds.

READ: Meralco on brink of first PBA title after Game 5 win over San Miguel

Banchero is also aware that the Beermen are well-capable of mounting a comeback blitz over them.

After all, this is the same team that accomplished the “Beeracle,” winning a title after being down 0-3 in a best-of-seven series with the now-defunct Alaska in the 2016 Philippine Cup.

“They’re going to come out as hard as they can just like they did tonight and we have to play Meralco basketball, play good defense and give it our all.”

“Sometimes, some guys are going to get hot and other nights we’ll have balanced scoring. We just have to make sure that regardless of what we’re doing on the offense, we’re doing our job on defense.”