Chris Banchero produced 18 points to lead the Meralco Bolts to a 93-86 win over the San Miguel Beer in Game 1 PBA Philippine Cup Finals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Wednesday night.
The Bolts big men endured a tough battle versus June Mar Fajardo at the paint and the guards took the scoring cudgels with their outside shooting and conversions on fastbreaks as Meralco repeated their 95-92 win over San Miguel Beer in their elims tiff.
"They're a great team, great defensive team, great offensive team, so it's not going to be easy at all," Banchero said. "We've got to play very good basketball - focused basketball - for 48 minutes."
Courtesy - PBA.PH
MERALCO 93 – Newsome 18, Banchero 18, Quinto 15, Maliksi 15, Caram 9, Almazan 8, Hodge 7, Bates 2, Pascual 1, Torres 0, Pasaol 0, Jose 0, Dario 0
SAN MIGUEL 86 – Fajardo 23, Perez 20, Lassiter 16, Trollano 9, Tautuaa 5, Cruz 5, Teng 4, Brondial 4, Ross 0, Enciso 0