By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Meralco Bolts were all guns blazing and capped off their second-straight PBA Philippine Cup victory with a huge win over the Converge FiberXers, 90-74.
Meralco had a terrific fourth quarter that was built from a 17-4 offensive run and never looked back against the gritty Converge squad.
Aaron Black continued to put on a show and led the feisty Meralco team with his game-high 25 points and was also a key initiator in setting up their patient systematic offense.
Converge kept it close against Meralco in the first half and was living in the paint led by young gun Jeo Ambohot who was aggressive in the shaded lane.
However, the more experienced Meralco team continued to score at the start of the third quarter and ballooned their nine-point halftime lead to 13 points with 8:50 remaining in the third quarter.
Despite conceding multiple open looks to Meralco, Converge’s never-say-die attitude once again rose to the occasion and pulled to within a point, 61-60, courtesy of their reliable bench members who stepped up.
Meralco took on the challenge given by the younger Converge team and stayed locked in offensively in the first five minutes of the final canto where they opened up another double-digit lead after Chris Newsome’s triple from the left elbow.
After a valiant fightback in the third period, the FiberXers lost gas and could only watch Meralco drain their shots and extended their lead to as much as 18 points off an Allein Maliksi trey with five minutes left in the ball game.
Converge failed to trim the deficit to single digits after Jeron Teng and Maverick Ahanmisi went cold in the most important stretch of the game.
With another loss in the ongoing tourney, the FiberXers dropped to 1-3 while the Bolts shared the PBA top spot with the San Miguel Beermen and the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel.
