Meralco sustained its hot shooting and benefitted from its solid bench depth to hammer Barangay Ginebra, 112-91, and keep its top 4 hopes alive in the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup on Labor Day at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
The Bolts trailed briefly, 2-9, but managed to turn the tables against the crowd drawers from there, behind their hot 55.3 percent shooting from the field.
Meralco established leads of as big as 33 points, on the way to the comfortable win.
The charges of coach Luigi Trillo moved to solo third spot at 6-3, keeping its top 4 hopes alive where the twice-to-beat serve as incentives heading to the quarterfinals.
The loss ended Ginebra’s five-game winning streak and dragged the team to 7-3 for solo third place in the standings.
Marvin Jones led Meralco with 18 points and nine rebounds.
CJ Cansino also finished with 18 points, CJ Newsome chipped in 12, while four other Bolts had 10 or more points.
Meralco held a massive 43-24 advantage in bench points, while the Bolts enjoyed a huge 27-14 edge in assists.
RJ Abarrientos led Ginebra with 24 points, Justin Brownlee had 23, but shot just 9-for-23 from the field.
The three-time PBA Best Import also had five rebounds, six assists and three steals.
Ginebra will have little time to adjust as it returns to action on Sunday to take on Rain or Shine also at the Big Dome.
