Meralco forces outage of NorthPort offense, stops ‘real deal’ top squad

A few nights ago, Meralco import Akil Mitchell was visualizing the immensity of taking down league-leading NorthPort in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.

And when he and the Bolts had that chance, Meralco turned that thought into something concrete on Tuesday night by cutting the top-ranked Batang Pier down to size, 111-94, at Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Malate, Manila.

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“NorthPort’s been playing really good basketball. They’ve been taking down quality teams,” Meralco coach Luigi Trillo said. “And like some of the coaches said, they are the real deal. But I think today, we just played better defensively.”

The Bolts muzzled the Batang Pier, limiting them to below the century mark after winning their first seven games with an average of 111.2 points.

“I thought our bench, just all around, was helping out … There was quality [performances] coming from them,” Trillo went on.

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Mitchell put up 30 points and 13 rebounds—both team-highs—that had Meralco improving to 6-3 as the Bolts joined guest club Hong Kong, rising contender Converge, and crowd darling Barangay Ginebra at the upper half of the leaderboard.

Chris Banchero delivered a conference-high 25 points and spiked four rebounds and six assists to lead the locals and earn Player of the Game honors.

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“It was a very important game for us. I was really excited to play NorthPort because they were playing the best this conference and we really want to see where we are at as a team, and I think we responded well tonight,” said the veteran playmaker echoing what Mitchell said last Friday.

“You wanna talk about a big win? That would be huge for us—really, really big for us,” the Meralco had said before the game.

Chris Newsome had 15 points, while Bong Quinto, Jansen Rios, CJ Cansino, Jolo Mendoza came up with key contributions as the Bolts enjoyed leads as big as 22 points.

Import Kadeem Jack had 29 points and 14 rebounds, while Arvin Tolentino pumped in 19 points. Joshua Munzon and William Navarro had at least 11 each for NorthPort.

But with their three-point shooting turning frosty—just 3-for-16—the Batang Pier lost for the second time in nine games here, their other setback coming at the hands of an unlikely tormentor in Phoenix last Dec. 17.

Meralco hopes to make it three straight when it goes up opposite San Miguel this Saturday, and Trillo and Banchero are already looking forward to the next dream that they’d like to turn into a reality.

“San Miguel’s going through some rough patches now, but push comes to shove they’ll need every game,” Trillo said. “We just have to be ready.”

“It’s really good to be going against these tough teams, these top teams going into the playoffs, We’ll need that,” Banchero said. “It will prepare us, definitely, for the playoffs, where we need to be playing our best basketball.”