Meralco outlasted Ginebra in a tough battle. Good defense displayed by both teams but a lot of missed free throws by Ginebra players in Q3 was the turning point and allowed Meralco to comeback from 8-point deficit. There was also the offensive rebounds in the fourth which allowed Meralco to protect their lead.
Brownlee only had 19 points, he was beaten by Bishop who scored 30 big points and 16 rebounds.
Also, the local players like Newsome had 20 points, while Maliksi is not anymore scoreless with 10 points.
Defense really is the key here why the Bolts got the victory.
After getting double digits in the first quarter, Brownlee can't score in the succeeding quarters and he only scored 19 points. Putting Hodge on him seems to be effective since he is the only one that can defend him. Maybe putting him in foul trouble would help the Ginebra but how can they do it is the question.
Meralco held Ginebra to scored only 13 points in both 3rd and 4th quarter. Meralco is one of the best defensive teams this season and even Magnolia had a hard time with their impenetrable defense. Maybe lets also add the fact that the Bolts are hungry right now to defeat this Ginebra team after getting defeated by them three times in PBA Finals that is why they are eager to get a revenge against them. Its a chess game so for sure Ginebra will make an adjustment with this loss.
I predicted right from the start that Ginebra will win in 6 games but I will not surprised now if this will go in 7 games. That would be better and a win-win situation for the audiences and the management as well
.