Meralco gets back up after being 21 points down to gain win against TnT

Final: 88 – 77 in favor of the Meralco Bolts!
Best Player: Chris Newsome with 20 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists #PBALabanKungLaban (Photo: PBA/Facebook)

Both former San Beda University star Baser Amer and former Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) Blue Eagle Chris Newsome stepped up in the third quarter scoring 10 and eight points respectively to dig their team out of being 30-9 points down in the second quarter. At the end of the game, Newsome contributed 20 points and nine rebounds for the Bolts, while Amer chipped 17 points respectively to now put their team at a 2-2 standing. Jared Dillinger, Nico Salva, and Randiel de Ocampo performed as well contributing 16, 11, and 11 points for their team. Cliff Hodge had five points and 13 rebounds.

The KaTropa, on the other hand, was led by Jayson Castro and Roger Pogoy, who performed exceptionally especially during the first quarter. In the end, Castro accomplished his career high of 20 points, while Pogoy chipped 15, but it was not enough to prevent their team from falling to a 2-3 standing.

In the words of Meralco head coach Norman Black, “We just tried to hang in there and we tried to get into the halftime break with just a manageable deficit. And we were able to do that.” He added, “The fortunate thing was that it was in the beginning of the game, so we had a lot of time to recover. And it was good that our defense wasn’t bad in the first half because if it was, then we could have gotten blown out in the first half.”

Meralco’s next opponent will be the NLEX Road Warriors on Saturday, February 2 at the Ynares Center in Antipolo, while TNT will try to get their winning streak started again against the Magnolia Hotshots the next day at the Mall of Asia Arena.