Meralco dragged Terrafirma to a winless conference, taking a 105-89 win to solidify its place in the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup best-of-three quarterfinals, Thursday night at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
The Bolts stayed still at fifth seed and ended the eliminations at 7-4. They will now wait for the results of the remaining games of Ginebra and Magnolia, both at 7-3, for the pairing.
“The important thing is we got the job done obviously since Coach Norman’s [Black] been gone, we’ve had five games and we’re 4-1. What matters now is we solidify ourselves in the best-of-three,” said Meralco assistant coach Luigi Trillo.
The Bolts set the tone with a strong 27-16 first quarter before denying Dyip any kind of comeback the rest of the way.
Chris Newsome led Meralco’s attack anew with 19 points, six rebounds, and five assists, while Aaron Black got 16 points, five rebounds, and five assists.
Raymond Almazan chipped in 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field with nine rebounds. Allein Maliksi also tallied the same scoreline.
“Coming this game sabi sa amin ni Coach Luigi na we don’t take for granted ‘yung Terrafirma kasi preparation na rin namin ito sa quarterfinals,” said Almazan.
This is the first winless conference in the PBA since Blackwater went 0-11 in the 2021 Philippine Cup. Moreover, this is Terrafirma’s 16th straight defeat dating back to the 2021-22 Governors’ Cup.
Leading the Dyip was Aldrech Ramos with 24 points on 9-of-12 clip from the field with six boards.
Eric Camson added 14 points, while Andreas Cahilig and Joshua Munzon produced 13 points each.
The Scores:
Meralco 105 – Newsome 19, Black 16, Almazan 15, Maliksi 14, Quinto 13, Caram 7, Pascual 6, Hodge 4, Banchero 4, Jose 4, Hugnatan 2, Pasaol 2, Belo 0, Johnson 0, Baclao 0
Terrafirma 89 – Ramos 24, Camson 14, Cahilig 13, Munzon 13, Gabayni 9, Calvo 5, Gomez de Liano 5, Tumalip 2, Javelona 2, Mina 2, Balagasay 0
Quarterscores: 27-16, 52-41, 73-65, 105-89
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The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
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