Good defense and improved team effort by Meralco disrupted the flow of San Miguel Beer’s offense in Game 1 of the 2024 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup finals on Wednesday evening at the Araneta Coliseum.
Bolts’ coach Luigi Trillo said the team’s cohesion down the stretch is working wonders for the squad, as they shoot for a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven championship series with the Beermen on Friday.
“It’s team effort, in which everybody is chipping in. Before, it was just (Chris) Newsome carrying the load, Allein (Maliksi). But, now there are four other guys who are important,” said Trillo, after the Bolts prevailed, 93-86, over the Beermen.
Game 2 is set once again at 7:30 p.m. at the Big Dome.
Trillo said defending SMB’s Junemar Fajardo was a team effort in the opening game of the series.
“There are four guys who are important out there. And these four guys can defend against Junemar (Fajardo),” added Trillo.
Fajardo knocked in 23 points for the Beermen, but he was held to just five points in the last 10 minutes as Brandon Bates challenged his dominance inside in the fourth.
“They had a lot of points, and turnovers. And they were beating us in rebounds. I think we came out in the second half where we were able to do what we wanted to do. We wanted to take things away from them, their points,“ said Trillo.
Dealing with the Bolts’ sturdy defensive schemes and several offensive weapons is something that the Beermen will try to adjust to as they seek the series equalizer.
“Hindi naman kinalawang iyung laro namin. Hindi kami naglaro ng buo. Para kaming nahatak. Kailangan namin i-adjust iyung laro,” said SMB’s CJ Perez, who spoke on behalf of Beermen coach Jorge Gallent.
Chris Banchero and Newsome led the Bolts with 18 points and their efforts allowed Meralco to grab the momentum at the start of their championship affair.
The Bolts took charge in the last 6:33 off driving shots from Bates and Banchero, 79-77.
After that, the Beermen began misfiring, scoring four of seven attempts in the last 3:23 as the Bolts took control off Banchero’s layup, 91-83.
The last time the Bolts won over the Beermen was in their 11th and final game in the elimination round, a 95-92 triumph which pushed Meralco into the quarterfinals.
