Bolts escape Columbian Dyip
There’s a big reason why Allen Durham is the reigning back-to-back Best Import in the PBA Governors Cup and on Friday he came up with plenty of the right stuff to bolster his case.
Durham came up with a 20-20 game and almost had a triple double in leading Meralco to a 109-106 nail-bitter over gritty Columbian at the start of the season-ending tournament’s 2018 edition at the Ynares center in Antipolo.
Baser Amer, Mike Tolomia, Ranidel de Ocampo and even KG Canaleta provided the needed help, but it was mostly Durham’s 26 points, 20 rebounds and nine assists that enabled the Bolts to hold off the Dyip and launch their bid on a high note.
Obviously, Meralco coach Norman Black was pleased with the way his charges found a way to regroup following a bad start to trail by as many as 14 points twice early and then again recovered after blowing a 12-point third quarter lead of their own.
“Definitely a good start for us this conference. It was a tough win. They played quite well as a team and their import is very good. It’s very difficult to stop him tonight,” said Black.
Black was referring to Columbian import Akeem Wright, who made his own adjustments in the second half to finish with 30 points and 14 rebounds before leaving the game following a bad fall, 1.4 ticks left.
That left the Dyip with no choice but to go to Roider Cabrera for the game-tying triple try that he missed and allowed Black to heave a big sigh of relief.
“Our first half was a little bit shaky,” admitted Black.
“We didn’t get off to a good start, especially in that second quarter. But we were able to fix things at the halftime, made some adjustments and played a lot better in the third quarter. We gave that away at the start of the fourth quarter, but we recovered enough to win in the end.”—