Chris Banchero makes impact in Meralco debut, expected to 'get better suited' with practice time

New recruit Chris Banchero finally donned the Meralco colors in the Bolts' 101-95 victory over the defending champion Ginebra last Sunday in the PBA Governors' Cup.

And the Filipino-Italian guard did not disappoint, pouring in 12 points on 50-percent shooting from the field, four rebounds, three assists, and a steal all in just almost 24 minutes of action.

But while Banchero had an impressive debut for Meralco, head coach Norman Black said the high-profile playmaker still has plenty of room for improvement after joining the squad only last week.

"He came in and contributed [but] he doesn't really know what we are doing yet. And I could see also defensively that we weren't as smooth because we lost some rotations because he doesn’t really know what we are doing defensively yet," said Black after they stunned Ginebra.

"Offensively, he only knows about two or three plays so I expect that as the days go by, he'll get more practice time and he'll get better suited with the team."

Black added that Banchero could be a huge reinforcement to their strong defensive scheme, a ploy that Black felt served as a key factor in their unbeaten 4-0 slate so far.

"He came in and scored 12 points for us, he gave us good pressure defense. He's going to be a big addition to our team," said the tactician.

He added: "We didn't shoot that ball that well and we didn't execute that well offensively but we put up some strong defensive stops in the second half that allowed us to separate a little bit and allowed us to win the game."

Meanwhile, Banchero's former mentor in Phoenix Super LPG, Topex Robinson, said they have moved on from the exit of the guard. He added that they have enough weapons to fill the shoes that Banchero left.

"Chris really was a big part of our team and we just remembered that CB is part of it but not a whole of it. So whichever part that we lost from CB, somebody else will fill that spot," said Robinson following Fuel Masters' close 93-92 victory over TNT last Sunday as well.

"RJ Jazul played well and RR (Garcia) was also solid and we missed a bit of Aljun (Melecio) because he's still recovering from that injury but we have a ton of guards to help us out."

—Bea Micaller/JMB, GMA News