For Meralco fans, from the Sta. Lucia days or just recently hitched their bandwagon, this has been long overdue.
Four times, they suffered heartache against the hands of Barangay Ginebra in the finals.
In this conference, they defeated their archrival in seven grueling games and managed to stop the otherwise unstoppable, San Miguel Beermen.
Before moving to the Philippine Cup Finals, San Miguel only lost twice. The Cinderella story of Terrafirma was one game short, but Meralco’s dominance against the Beermen got its groove right from the get-go.
The game was crappy as hell.
Meralco finished the game with 29-of-74 from the field to 39 percent. Meanwhile, San Miguel fared even worse, going 26-of-74 from the field to a dismal 35 percent clip. But when the going gets tough, the Bolts showed their poise, while the Beermen also showed their championship savvy.
Ultimately, one June Mar Fajardo triple was all it took Chris Newsome to hit his game-winning shot.
Insanely, four of the five players in this info were drafted by the Bolts.
I don't usually do box scores but this Father's Day classic needs to be remembered.
MERALCO | GAME 6 | SAN MIGUEL |
80 | POINTS | 78 |
29/74 - 39% | FIELD GOALS | 26/74 - 35% |
7/20 - 35% | 3-PT FIELD GOALS | 4/27 - 14% |
44 - OFF: 16 | REBOUNDS | 56 - OFF: 23 |
16 | ASSISTS | 18 |
4 | STEALS | 3 |
7 | BLOCKS | 4 |
11 | TURNOVERS | 14 |
MERALCO | MINS | PTS | FG% | REB | AST |
NEWSOME | 41 | 15 | 4/17 | 5 | 4 |
MALIKSI | 26 | 14 | 5/12 | 3 | 0 |
QUINTO | 35 | 11 | 4/11 | 2 | 3 |
BANCHERO | 39 | 10 | 5/8 | 8 | 8 |
ALMAZAN | 32 | 9 | 3/9 | 10 | 0 |
HODGE | 27 | 6 | 3/6 | 6 | 1 |
TORRES | 11 | 6 | 2/4 | 1 | 0 |
CARAM | 6 | 6 | 2/3 | 0 | 0 |
BATES | 20 | 3 | 1/4 | 6 | 0 |
RIOS | 4 | 0 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 |
DNPs - Diego Dario, Jolo Mendoza, Alvin Pasaol, Raymar Jose, and Kyle Pascual.
SAN MIGUEL | MINS | PTS | FG% | REB | AST |
FAJARDO | 43 | 21 | 6/13 | 12 | 5 |
PEREZ | 35 | 14 | 6/15 | 9 | 4 |
LASSITER | 40 | 11 | 3/10 | 2 | 1 |
TAUTUAA | 29 | 10 | 3/7 | 9 | 1 |
ROMEO | 13 | 9 | 4/8 | 1 | 1 |
TROLLANO | 20 | 7 | 2/11 | 6 | 0 |
ENCISO | 23 | 5 | 2/4 | 4 | 4 |
ROSS | 16 | 1 | 0/1 | 2 | 0 |
J. CRUZ | 14 | 0 | 0/4 | 3 | 2 |
BRONDIAL | 4 | 0 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 |
TENG | 3 | 0 | 0/1 | 1 | 0 |
DNPs - Vic Manuel, Troy Mallilin, and Kyt Jimenez