The Meralco Bolts want to give the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings a good fight.
In the next three days, the team will spend time trying to figure out the Gin Kings’ game.
Meralco oach Norman Black said this after the Bolts unceremoniously stopped the San Miguel Beermen’s domination in the 2020 Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup.
The Bolts did this by swamping the Beermen, 90-68, in the knockout match for the last semifinals’ berth on Sunday at the Angeles University Foundation Sports Arena and Cultural Center.
“They (Bolts) worked so hard. Now, I’m going to regroup them because the job is not finished. It’s only the semifinals and we have set our sights on the finals,” said Black in a post-game huddle on Zoom after the game at the Angeles University Foundation Sports Arena and Cultural Center.
Meralco, with Chris Hodge and Baser Amer finishing with 14 points, will meet the Gin Kings in Game 1 of the best-of-five semis series on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 6:30 p.m.
San Miguel, with Marcio Lassiter firing a game-high 20 points, will miss the Philippine Cup playoffs early for the first time in seven years.
“We tried to slow down their post-up, Mo (Tautuaa) and their guards. It worked very very well because the players executed the game plan,” added Black.
The Bolts played a defensive-minded game from the start, jumping to a 16-6 lead late in the first quarter and remained in front of San Miguel Beer in the second.
The Bolts then seized a 22-point lead at 40-18 behind Allein Maliksi’s triple, with 5:28 to go.
As a consolation, though, SMB’s Arwind Santos finished with 10 points and nine boards and has now 1,000 career three-pointers, tying Al Solis at seventh on the all-time list.
Meralco shot 38.5 percent from downtown (10-for-26) against SMB.