Black: we have set our sights on the final

The Meralco Bolts want to give the Barangay Gin Gin Kings a good fight. Over the next three days, the team will spend time trying to figure out the Gin Kings game. Meralco coach Norman Black said this after the Bolts unceremoniously halted the San Miguel Brewers’ dominance at the 2020 Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup. The Bolts did this by crushing the Beermen, 90-68, in the elimination match for the position of the last semifinals on Sunday at the Cultural and Sports Center of the University of Angeles Foundation. “They (Bolts) worked really hard. Now, I’m going to regroup them because the work is not finished. It’s just the semi-finals and we’ve set our sights on the final, ”Black said in a post-game Zoom meeting after the game at the University of Angeles Foundation Sports and Cultural Center. Meralco, with Chris Hodge and Baser Amer finishing with 14 points, will meet the Gin Kings in Game 1 of the best-of-five semifinal series on Wednesday, November 18 at 6:30 p.m. San Miguel, with Marcio Lassiter shooting a game-high 20 points, he will miss the Philippines Cup playoffs early for the first time in seven years. “We tried to stop his post, Mo (Tautuaa) and his guards. It worked very, very well because the players executed the game plan, ”Black added. The Bolts played a defensive-minded game early on, jumping to a 16-6 lead late in the first quarter and staying ahead of San Miguel Beer in the second. The Bolts then took a 22-point lead to 40-18 behind Allein Maliksi’s 3-pointer, with 5:28 to go. As a consolation, however, SMB’s Arwind Santos finished with 10 points and nine rebounds and now has 1,000 career 3s, tying Al Solís for seventh on the all-time list. Meralco shot 38.5 percent from the center (10 of 26) against SMB.