MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – With Calvin Abueva sitting down, the Meralco Bolts took advantage of the Alaska Aces and came away with a 100-96 victory in the 2016 PBA Governors' Cup on Sunday, July 17 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Bolts went up 2-0 in the standings as the Aces dropped their first game, playing without Abueva who is taking time to rest after training with national team Gilas Pilipinas the past two months.
"[I'll be back on] Tuesday," Abueva told reporters after the game. "I'm going to rest first, I haven't practiced yet. I'll recover first and do therapy."
Import Allen Durham spearheaded Meralco's victory with 36 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, and a block.
Newsome hit 6 of his 11 field goals for 19 points, while Jared Dillinger and Reynel Hugnatan added 13 and 11 points, respectively. Hugnatan also had 6 rebounds.
"It's a good thing we're able to survive this weekend. We had back-to-back games to start the conference and I was a little worried about that," said head coach Norman Black.
"I'm happy we're able to get the two wins this weekend."
Alaska, though short-handed, did not go down easily, putting up a fight inside the final minute as they cut an 11-point deficit with under two minutes left to just 96-99, after a thrilling stretch that saw RJ Jazul bury two 3-pointers and import Ladontae Henton adding his own trey.
The Aces had every opportunity as they secured key rebounds and the Bolts failed to convert on a possession with 11.7 seconds remaining. Henton, however, missed a potential game-tying triple as Chris Newsome sealed the victory with a free throw.
"We fumbled a little bit in the end," said Black. "We actually had pretty good control of the game but at the same time at the end we made a few mistakes, we didn't use our timeouts correctly and we gave them an opportunity to get back in the game."
Henton had 33 points and 12 rebounds for Alaska while Jazul finished with 13 points and Kevin Racal had 11.
Though victorious, Black said he is looking forward to practicing some more in order to incorporate newly acquired guard Jonathan Uyloan as well as his Asian import, Iranian national team player Mohammad Jamshidi, who played nearly 14 minutes but missed all of his 6 attempts.
Alaska is going back to the drawing board after a game that saw them track down just 37 rebounds against Meralco's 51. The Aces also had 17 assists compared to the Bolts' 24. – Rappler.com