MERALCO put on a dominating performance like a defending champion should and sent Terrafirma crashing back to earth with a wire-to-wire 118-80 victory Sunday in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
CJ Cansino's 19 points in as many minutes led the Bolts' balanced offense that highlighted a mighty show of force that propelled them to the win, which was more comfortable win than in their 91-89 squeaker over Converge last Friday and to the biggest winning margin in franchise history.
For Bong Quinto, who opened scoring with a four-pointer followed by a triple to kickstart the onslaught, it's about putting into game the things they drilled in practice.
"Talagang ready naman kami every game, especially sa practice naming," said Quinto, who finished with 13 points and five assists.
"Sila coach Luigi (Trillo), coach Nenad (Vucinic), talagang pinu-push nila kami. Lahat ng dapat naming gawin sa game, gawin na namin sa practice para masanay kami," added Quinto. "Kaya siguro lahat ng ginamit na players talagang ready maglaro."
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Another rookie in Kurt Reyson added 16 points while Brandon Bates, Jolo Mendoza and Alvin Pasaol each tossed in 11 points for Meralco as all 15 players utilized by Trillo scored.
Mark Sangalang scraped for a gamehigh 23 points, but the likes of Stanley Pringle and Terrence Romeo visibly struggled as Terrafirma failed to follow up its 95-87 conquest of Phoenix earlier Friday.
Pringle finished with 11 points but only on a 5-of-11 field shooting while Romeo went 4-of-10 and wound up with nine points for the Dyip, who committed 10 of their 19 turnovers in the pivotal third period.
Final statistics show Meralco also finishing with a 42-of-78 clip from the field, highlighted by Cansino making four of the team's five four-pointers and one of its 10 triples.
After seeing what was a 42-22 lead whittled to just 13 at the half, Meralco fully buckled down to work in the third period to outscore Terrafirma, 30-13, and go into the final quarter with an 86-56 spread.
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The rout became a certainty when the difference got stretched to as much as 107-65 even while Trillo opted to rest his main men in anticipation of a much harder grind against San Miguel Beer in the league's official 50th anniversary celebration on Wednesday. (NC)
