Meralco halts San Miguel’s five-year reign to advance to PBA semifinals

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

After the buzzer sounded, it officially marked the end of the San Miguel Beermen’s dynasty after clinching five-straight PBA Philippine Cup championships.

Poised and determined to get the job done, coach Norman Black and the Meralco Bolts played four perfect quarters to knock out the defending champions in their do-or-die quarterfinals clash, 90-68.

Heading into the matchup, the Beermen held an impressive resume of 10-straight PBA rubber match consecutive wins and were undefeated in five years in the first round of the Philippine Cup.

However, the Bolts made sure they handle the pressure and went consistent with their defensive sets that disrupted San Miguel’s usual offensive flow and negated Moala Tautuaa’s pick-and-roll game.

It was the same story in Game 1 of their quarterfinals matchup after Meralco jumped to an emphatic 40-18 lead in the middle of the second quarter.

The resilient Beermen fought back and even cut the deficit to just six after a Marcio Lassiter scoring run but Meralco responded with their own 16-0 burst that wore San Miguel down in the third frame.

From that point, the Beermen were unable to close the gap and had a hard time converting field goals despite coach Leo Austria’s guard-rotation in Chriss Ross, Alex Cabagnot, Paul Zamar, and Gelo Alolino.

“Tonight was really a focus on defense. We knew what we wanted to do defensively. It worked very, very well because the players really executed the game plan, so all hats off to them,” said coach Black of Meralco.

Meralco had four players in double figures with Baser Amer and Cliff Hodge scoring 14-apiece, veteran Reynel Hugnatan with 12, and Allein Maliksi with 11.

The historic reign-ending win for the Bolts will setup a familiar showdown with rival team Brgy. Ginebra San Miguel in the semifinals.