Meralco Bolts Survived TnT's Late Assaults to Force a Deciding Game 3

Meralco charged early with 32 points against only 13 of TNT in the first quarter but TNT quickly responded in the second quarter exploding with 31 points and ended the first half with the score of 49 -44 in favor of Meralco.

The Hot streak continued in the second half but both teams leveled off in the fourth were defense took over the game and forced the contest to overtime with the score of 92 all.

Meralco Bolts' hulking import Stepheson exited the game early due to foul trouble and was not able to provide his usual contribution tonight scoring only 7 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in 26 minutes of play. His counterpart on the other side Josh Smith scored 18 points and grabbed 18 rebounds.

The story of the night, however, isn't about the import as Meralco leaned on their Wonderboy Baser Amer who played like a hero tonight scoring his career high of 32 points on an 11/21 (52%) shooting. Kelly Nabong also helped and scored critical points late in the game, contributing a total of 15 points.

Talk n Text was awful tonight with Castro shooting 2/13 (15%) Reyes  1/7 (14%), Garcia 4/12 (33%)...  you get the idea, right? TNT as a team did not shoot well at 36%.

At post interview, Baser Amer credits team aggressiveness even without their import late in the game. He also commended his teammates with the win.

The scores:

MERALCO 103 - Amer 32, Hodge 15, Nabong 15, Newsome 12, Dillinger 12, Stepheson 7, Hugnatan 7, Uyloan 3, Yeo 0.

TNT 100 - Smith 18, Williams 16, Garcia 14, Castro 12, Semerad 10, Pogoy 9, Rosario 7, Reyes 5, Rosales 5, Tautuaa 4.

Quarterscores: 32-13, 49-44, 79-73, 92-92, 103-100.