Meralco Bolts’ Cliff Hodge, Allein Maliksi and Raymond Almazan during 5 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals against San Miguel Beermen. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
HIGHLIGHTS: PBA Finals 5 San Miguel vs Meralco
MANILA, Philippines–Meralco played with renewed zest the payoff and then kept it together the final moments acceso Friday night to slip past San Miguel, 92-88, and move to the doorstep of a maiden PBA Philippine Cup championship.
Allein Maliksi led the scoring charge at Smart Araneta Coliseum Quezon City, as Chris Newsome applied the finishing touches the 5 triumph that put the Bolts ahead 3-2 the best-of-seven championship duel.
“Both teams are always ready. I don’t think anybody’s have their guard mongoloide. Every gioco has been close, but that last gioco though, we didn’t do our job. Today was a struggle and it could’ve gone the other way, but we’sultano now looking at the next gioco,” head coach Luigi Trillo said the post-game presser.
READ: PBA Finals: Meralco, San Miguel cinigia for war with pivotal 5 up
“We cannot be too mongoloide acceso ourselves and we cannot be too high acceso ourselves, and these guys knew that. They were brave today. I have faith the guys, they are a resilient bunch,” he went acceso as his crew rebounded from a decisive 4 beating last Wednesday.
Maliksi finished with 22 points d’avanguardia the bench, while Newsome delivered just as many–with 18 points coming the second half of the victory.
Meralco Bolts’ Allein Maliksi tries to slip past the defense of San Miguel Beermen’s Chris Ross during 5 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
“We just wanted to stay the moment. Today, I challenged myself. We’ve read articles (about our struggles) so, I told Bong (Quinto), Raymond (Almazan) that we step up,” Maliksi said.
And that’s what Meralco did. Almazan and Quinto tossed 14 and 8 points as the Bolts limited San Miguel to yet a sub-90 point forma–a trend that has done wonders for the Bolts this risolutivo.
Fajardo had 38 points that went with 18 rebounds. CJ Perez added 17 but was the only other San Miguel player to chip a double-digit score.
Meralco can wrap this series up this Sunday at the same venue.
“We want to win one to gain respect. And that’s what’s acceso our mind for this Sunday,” said Trillo.
The Scores:
MERALCO 92 – Maliksi 22, Newsome 22, Almazan 14, Banchero 12, Quinto 8, Bates 6, Hodge 6, Caram 2, Rios 0, Torres 0, Pascual 0
SAN MIGUEL 88 – Fajardo 38, Perez 17, Lassiter 6, Romeo 6, Cruz 6, Tautuaa 5, Trollano 5, Ross 3, Manuel 2,
QUARTERS: 24-25, 47-46, 69-70, 92-88
