Meralco shoots for EASL playoffs

MANILA, Philippines —  Meralco has three games left in its EASL regular season schedule and with two assignments set at home, Bolts coach Luigi Trillo said yesterday there’s still a chance to catch the bus for a ride to the playoffs.

“We have a shot at the Final Four,” said Trillo. “Now, we have to buckle down to business in Manila. We can beat Korea and Taipei. We’re still in this.” Last Wednesday, Meralco played its “home” game in a special attraction in Macau and upset Ryukyu, 97-88, in OT. It was the PBA’s first EASL win this campaign after TNT’s 0-4 and Meralco’s 0-3 starts. The Bolts’ last three outings are against Seoul on Dec. 27 and New Taipei on Jan, 7, both at home and Seoul on Feb. 7 on the road.

Meralco Gov. Atty. Bill Pamintuan, watching at courtside, described the Filipino crowd in Macau as the Bolts’ sixth man. “Grabe yun crowd support,” he said. “We were down by four in the last 17 seconds of regulation, 80-76 and coming from a timeout, (Chris) Newsome hit a three plus a foul which he converted so it went to OT after Ryukyu failed to score in the last 10 seconds.”

Trillo credited active consultant Nenad Vucinic for the win. “Coach Nenad did a terrific job (as) he’s more in charge for EASL,” said Trillo. “He set up the play for New in the end. Raymond (Almazan) also played well when Cliff (Hodge) was on the bench and CB (Chris Banchero) was a plus 28. It was a miraculous four-point play by New to send it into OT which we dominated.”

Ryukyu replaced former Meralco import Allen Durham with 6-7 Vic Law who played for the Orlando Magic in 2019-20. The Golden Kings’ other import was 6-9 Jack Cooley who had NBA stints with Utah and Sacramento. Asian heritage import Carl Tamayo sat out. “Allen was hurt after playing back-to-back games but Law’s good and I heard he gets $100,000 a month,” said Trillo. “They made the mistake of keeping two bigs in their horns play which allowed Cliff to disrupt their pick-and-roll.”

Zach Lofton paced Meralco with 35 points and Prince Ibeh collected 15 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks. Newsome had 27 points, eight rebounds and two assists. Making their EASL debuts were Banchero and Allein Maliksi.

Pamintuan said during