Meralco clobbers SMB for 2-0 start in Philippine Cup

MERALCO beat San Miguel Beer, 85-63, at the resumption of the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup at the Ynares Center in Pasig City on Sunday, spoiling the return of six-time Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo who missed the bubble season in Clark last year.

Last year’s top rookie Aaron Black and Chris Newsome delivered the goods at crunch time to help send the Bolts to their second consecutive

win in the young season. They beat Northport, 85-63, in last Friday’s season opener.

“We got off to a slow start. I thought San Miguel Beer played aggressively in the first quarter, but we started playing our game, we started defending a lot better in the second half,” Meralco Head Coach Norman Black said.

“So to put San Miguel Beer behind is a big deal for us. As a coach, I am happy that we played them early,” Black added.

Newsome tallied 17 points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out six assists, but it was Black’s son, Aaron, who stood tall in the payoff period hitting seven of his 14 points there on top of three triples.

Ahead 79-77, Black nailed two straight triples followed by a Newsome jumper to pad Bolts’ lead to 87-77 with three minutes left in the game.

San Miguel Beer came to within 83-88 in the final minute, but Newsome nailed a 3-pointer to put the game out of reach, 91-83, with only 40 seconds left.

Reynel Hugnatan added 13 points and Nards Pinto chipped in all 11 points in the third period also for the Bolts.

Terrence Romeo left the game with a knee injury early in the fourth quarter but still lead the Beermen in scoring with 18 points on nine-of-18 shooting.

Fajardo, who recovered from a leg injury, scored only five points and got five rebounds in 18 minutes.

CJ Perez debuted for the Beermen with 17 points, while Moala Tautuaa had also 17 and 10 rebounds.