By Peter Atencio
Aaron Black hardly minded an injury as he led the Meralco Bolts to a 97-87 subduing of the NorthPort Batang Pier Thursday night in the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City.
The 25-year-old Black could hardly use his left hand because of a hurting wrist, but he was still able to use his right hand extensively, scoring 20 points, pulling down five rebounds and dishing off seven assists for the Bolts.
Black said he gives credit to his teammates for finding him and trusting him to score points despite his situation. “They looked for me and I got some easy baskets, thanks to them,” said Black.
The Bolts went on to bounce back from their 71-78 loss to the TNT Tropang Giga and notch their third triumph in four games.
Allein Maliksi and Chris Banchero added 16 points for the Bolts, who took control in the first period with 32-22 lead.
After holding the Batang Pier to just 15 points in the second period, the Bolts coasted to a 53-37 halftime lead, and from there, they widened it to 23 at the end of the third period, 83-61.
Aaron’s dad, coach Norman Black said the team played much better than they did against the Tropang Giga a few days ago.
“We just wanted to bounce back from our loss to TNT. The boys played good defense against TNT. But our offense was off and out of whack. Tonight our offense flowed better. And our defense really held up for us,” said the elder Black.
Jamie Malonzo fired 27 points for Batang Pier, who have a 2-3 slate.
