August 18, 2017

Durham powers shorthanded Meralco past Phoenix

MERALCO survived the absence of three key players and the brilliant debut of Jeff Chan and replacement import Brandon Brown in a Phoenix uniform after hacking out a 107-104 come-from-behind win and got back on track in the PBA Governors Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Allen Durham, the reigning Best Import of the season-ending meet, presided over the Bolts’ fourth quarter surge to turn around a game they once trailed, 77-62, late in the third period.

Durham had 15 of his team-high 33 points in the payoff period and teamed up with Garvo Lanete and Chris Newsome in a strong finishing kick for Meralco, which bounced back from a 100-94 loss to NLEX the last time.

The Bolts are now tied with the Road Warriors at second place with similar 5-1 marks despite playing without the injured Cliff Hodge and the backcourt tandem of Baser Amer and Mike Tolomia, both of whom are with the Gilas Pilipinas team currently campaigning in the 29th Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“Just an incredible effort from my guys tonight. We have to deal with a lot of adversities in this game in the fact that Cliff Hodge is still out, one of our best defensive players. And then to lose Baser and Mike Tolomia, our starting and back-up point guards,” said Meralco coach Norman Black.

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“We knew that we need a big effort for us to win this game and we knew some guys would have to play the entire game.”

The Meralco coach lauded Lanete and Newsome for stepping up and filling in the numbers left by the absence of Hodge, Amer, and Tolomia.Lanete finished with 27 points in his best game since being acquired by the team this conference, while added 18 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and seven steals.

“Garvo lanete hit some big shots for us and I can’t forget about Newsome, he had a very good all-around game (for us),” added Black.

The sorry loss put to naught the huge numbers put up by Chan and Brown in their first game with the Fuel Masters.

Brown, coming in as a replacement for the injured Eugene Phelps, finished with a game-high 38 points and nine rebounds, while Chan, acquired in a trade with Mark Borboran during the break, fired 27 points and was 3 of 5 from three-point range.

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Behind their hot hands, the Fuel Masters raced to a 57-48 lead at the half and 84-75 entering the final quarter.

But the Bolts outscored the Fuel Masters, 12-3, at the start of the fourth to level the count at 87-all. Durham then presided on nine straight unanswered points by Meralco to give the team a 96-87 lead.

Phoenix came close at 105-104 on three free throws by Brown, but Lanete clinched the win for the Bolts with two free throws in the waning seconds.

It was the third straight loss for Phoenix, which fell to 2-3 overall.