Meralco’s ace Tony Bishop scored 30 points and 13 rebounds, and seven assists.

“I think that our import Tony Bishop had a lot to do with this victory. His consistency throughout the game, the fact that he shows up every game gives us a foundation that we can build on to try to win as much as possible,” said Meralco coach Norman Black.

However, it was a nerve-racking game as Ginebra was able to advance by two points during the 4th quarter 87-89.

But that did not last, thanks to the jumper made by Bishop and tied it to 89-89 which sparked the team’s good performance and led to a 7 points advantage, 96-89.

“We had to gut it out. It wasn’t a very pretty victory to be quite honest with you. We didn’t shoot the ball that well and we didn’t execute that well offensively. But I think we strung together some defensive stops in the second half that allowed us to separate a little bit and allowed us to win the game,” said Black.

While the debuting Chris Banchero gave a dazzled kick-off as he marked 12 points, four rebounds, and three assists in under 24 minutes off the bench.

The scores: 

Meralco 101 – Bishop 30, Banchero 12, Newsome 12, Maliksi 11, Quinto 8, Almazan 8, Hodge 8, Black 6, Caram 4, Hugnatan 2. 

Barangay Ginebra 95 – Brownlee 27, Thompson 18, Standhardinger 17, Tenorio 10, J. Aguilar 10, Tolentino 5, Caperal 3, Chan 3, Pinto 2. 

Quarters: 29-22; 45-46; 79-76; 101-95.