Meralco defender Chris Newsome (right) moves forward to make a shot into Barangay Ginebra’s Christian Standhardinger net. — PBA . IMAGES
Meralco is one of only three teams that Barangay Ginebra has yet to beat in the current PBA season.
After the closing curtain on Wednesday night of the best of the seven Governors Cup finals, nothing has changed.
Unforgiving defensiveness and great patience on the other end, the Bolts singled out the Gin Kings for a 104-91 win at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, a win that gave the breakout-seeking club a win. Important start in the fourth edition of one side of their rivalry.
“I think we really had a great start today offensively, and our defense was very organized,” Meralco head coach Norman Black told reporters. after the game.
“The first half, I think the locals carried us most of the time. In the second half, Tony stepped up and hit some big shots for us. Everything for us will be about defense. It will revolve around trying to find a way to slow them down uncomfortably. And tonight, so far, so good,” he added.
Indeed, many heroes helped Meralco win game 1.
Statistical odds
Chris Newsome set the tone in the opening bracket, Allein Maliksi and import Tony Bishop Jr took turns in the middle while Cliff Hodge hit tough dunks in the goal that put the Bolts in the safer half of the odds. statistics — 60 of 88 The clubs (68%) that have won the opening series of a series of seven best championships have gone on to win them all, according to chief statistician Fidel Mangonon III.
“It’s very important to get the first win,” Black said. “If you fall behind, the series will have a hard time catching up.”
However, for a coach who has lost to Ginebra in the Finals on all three of their games there, a puzzle is just that – a puzzle for fans to munch on while waiting for Game 2 of Monday. Six.
“The only thing I can say right now is that since I have lost so many times in this tournament, I just play one game at a time. We have the first game, and I’m going to watch the second game like it’s 0-0 and we have to have the second,” Black said.
Maliksi added 22 points and eight rebounds to lead Meralco, while Bishop added 20 and 12. Hodge added 17 points in the scoring effort while Raymond Almazan 10.
Triple
Ginebra gets the row from Scottie Thompson, who produced a three-time double with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, and resident import Justin Brownlee, who leads everyone on points with 27 points. Christian Standhardinger pumped in 20 more players, but those numbers could not make up for the absence of injured starters Japeth Aguilar and Stanley Pringle.
Meralco has a 21-point lead, but Black still believes they can — and must — refine a lot of things from their Game 1 performance as the series goes on.
“I will go home and prepare like I did in the past; I guess since we started the knockout round. And I’ll just make sure my team is ready for Game 2,” he said of the next showdown at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
“I’m going to try to predict what adjustments they might make and hopefully we can find a few tweaks that we can make as well,” Black added.
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