By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Meralco Bolts are one win away from advancing to the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals after outdueling the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, 93-82, in Game 1 of their best-of-three quarterfinals duel.
Meralco stormed their way to a fiery opening quarter after unloading 32 big points in just 12 minutes of action.
Every time Ginebra scored, the running and gunning Meralco squad always had answers spearheaded by crafty point guard Aaron Black who finished the game with a career-high 25 points including four assists and three rebounds.
Ginebra figured in a shootout with Meralco in the first quarter but failed to sustain their energy and momentum as the Bolts scored seven points in the last minute to enter the second period with oozing confidence.
Despite setting up Christian Standhardinger and Japhet Aguilar in the post, the Bolts continued to push the tempo and relied on their quick guards to do the damage in the break.
Ginebra got some momentum heading into the second half after reigning Most Valuable Player (MVP) Scottie Thompson drained a buzzer-beating three-pointer to cut Meralco’s lead to 10 points, 53-43.
The Bolts continued to play a high-octane brand of offense in the last two quarters and displayed tons of problems for Ginebra that failed to keep up with their established pace.
Thompson and Aguilar tried to keep Ginebra within striking distance but the balanced Meralco attack piled up the lead to double-digits in the final canto.
Ginebra never trimmed Meralco’s lead to single digits in the fourth quarter and could only get close to a 12-point deficit before the final buzzer sounded.
If Meralco could pull off the series win, this will be their first series victory over Ginebra since the Justin Brownlee-Allen Durham era where they slugged it out during the 2017 PBA Governor’s Cup grand finals.
