PBA: Meralco Bolts survive last minute Yap onslaught

The Meralco Bolts squandered a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter but held on to win and hand B-MEG its first loss in the semifinals, 104-101  Friday night.
 
Meralco leaned on a surprise showing from point guard Chris Ross who tallied 13 points in the first period as the Bolts outscored the Llamados, 31-17.
 
In the second, the Bolts continued to display their athleticism, running the  break with import Mario West even providing a couple of alleyoop plays along the way to end the half, 54-43. The good shooting continued for Meralco, as they increased their lead to 14 at the end of the third, 77-63.
 
In the fourth, a Macapagal three and a Mercado lay up pushed Meralco's lead to 16, 85-69. It was then when James Yap started to get hot, hitting four straight to cut the deficit to 12, 85-73.
 
A Marqus Blakely conversion at the 5:18 mark had the Meralco lead trimmed down to 10, before consecutive threes by Josh Urbiztondo and Yancy de Ocampo made it 89-83.
 

The Bolts were up seven with 55 seconds remaining, 96-89, before the Llamados went on a 9-3 run to cut the lead to one, 99-98, with seven seconds remaining.
 
In the ensuing play, B-MEG ended up guessing wrong as they anticipated a Meralco timeout. Instead, Asi Taulava went for a go-ahead pass to a streaking Chris Ross who scored a bucket plus an extra point from a foul from Josh Urbiztondo, 102-98.
 
The Llamados had 6.7 seconds to set up, as James Yap banked in a three with 3.9 seconds remaining, 102-101. B-MEG tried to stop the clock by fouling Taulava with 2.6 remaining. The Meralco big man hit one out of two, 103-101. A technical foul was then called on B-MEG for calling a time out they did not have.
 
Cardona sank the crucial technical freethrow to bump the lead up to three, 104-101. With 1.7 seconds left, the Llamados found it difficult to get the ball inbounds, as Chris Ross tapped the ball from Josh Urbiztondo until the final buzzer sounded.
 
"We've been outplayed in the first thee games. We've been in situations wherein we don't know how to play in this kind of environment. Finally, we won a big one against B-MEG. Character is tested when nothing is on the line. This team plays hard, this team plays to win, this team can go against the big dogs in the league," said Meralco head coach Ryan Gregorio. — OMG/ELR, GMA News
 
The scores:
 
MERALCO 104 - Mercado 30, West 29, Ross 18, Cardona 11, Taulava 9, Macapagal 3, Timberlake 2, Reyes 2.
 
B-MEG 101 - Blakely 30, Yap 22, Simon 13, Barroca 11, De Ocampo 11, Urbiztondo 6, Pingris 5, Villanueva 3, Reavis 0.
 
Quarters: 31-17, 54-43, 77-63, 104-101