MERALCO bared its defensive fangs to the fullest and snapped out of a two-game slide by overcoming Eastern, 88-83, Sunday in the PBA Commissioner's Cup's resumption at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Akil Mitchell wound up with 31 points while anchoring the Bolts' defense that limited the guest team to its lowest scoring total so far and spelled the biggest difference in the hard-fought match.
The win jacked Meralco's record to 4-2, but the way his side rediscovering its defensive might after giving up an average of 112 points in its last two games obviously pleased coach Luigi Trillo even more.
"This is a good one, we did enough to win. It was a grind-out win," said Trillo after his Bolts forced their opponents to 21 turnovers and a 26-of-71 field shooting.
The loss was Eastern's third in nine games despite Chris McLaughlin's 28 points, 18 rebounds and four blocked shots.
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Meralco's defense on the likes of Hayden Blankley, Glenn Yang and Kobey Lam, however, clearly took its toll on Eastern's bid.
After scoring only two points in the first half, Lam came alive in the last two quarters to still finish with 16 points, while Blankley struggled for only 12 points in also finishing way below average.
Saddled by foul trouble since the opening quarter, Yang could only manage two points.
Meralco also had to scrape for points with Bong Quinto the only other player to score in double digits with 16. The likes of Aaron Black, Chris Newsome and Cliff Hodge still did their part after Eastern regained the upper hand at 72-71 and threatened at 78-79.
Newsome bottomed a clutch triple and Quinto a pair of free throws to make it a six-point game before Black's drive and Newsome's freebies made it an 88-81 count and quashed the threat for good going to the game's last 33.7 seconds.
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Meralco actually surged back from a 0-6 start to post as much as a 28-19 spread, but still found the going tough. Good thing Mitchell started to hit his stride in the third period where he scored 18 of his points that largely helped keep his team ahead, 69-67.
"I think in the first half I was seeing things that I could take advantage of and in the second half they didn't make any adjustment so I just tried to exploit it," said Mitchell, who also had 14 rebounds, five assists, and seven steals.
"My teammates saw that as well, and they called it out and kept on giving it to me." (NC)
The Scores :
MERALCO 88 - Mitchell 31, Quinto 16, Black 9, Newsome 9, Black 9, Hodge 6, Banchero 6, Caram 4, Torres 3, Bates 2, Cansino 2, Rios 0, ALmazan 0, Reyson 0.
EASTERN 83 - McLaughlin 28, Lam 16, Guinchard 13, Blankley 12, Cao 5, Cheung 3, Chan 2, Yang 2, Pok 2, Leung 0, Xu 0.
QUARTERS : 19-15, 39-36, 69-67, 88-83.
