Bolts survive San Mig Coffee for 1-0 lead

MANILA—Eric Dawson fired 25 points including nine in the pivotal period as the Meralco Bolts escaped with an 88-85 win over San Mig Coffee for a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three quarterfinal battle in the 38th PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Araneta Coliseum yesterday. The 6’9” Dawson’s energy lifted the entire Meralco crew, who trailed by 10 points in the opening quarter to secure the important victory and they need only to win Sunday to advance into the semifinal round for the first time since rejoining the league in 2010. “I had some anxious moments, especially at the start of the game. We could not stop Denzel Bowles. We were able to make stops and make crucial points in the second quarter. It made them bleed for their baskets. That’s what we did today. We want to be intelligent this coming Sunday. We have been in this situation before, we need two wins to get this series. I am just so happy and delighted how we won tonight’s game,” said Meralco coach Ryan Gregorio. But all is not yet lost for the Coffee Mixers, who battled tooth-to-nail that resulted to six deadlocks. After losing the upper hand late in the second canto, the Coffee Mixers prevented Meralco from posting more than a nine-point lead. They tied the match for the last time, 84-84, on Joe Devance’s split of a charity off a foul by Jay-Arr Reyes with still 4:19 to go. Aside from Dawson, also contributing a lot for the B-Boys were Ronjay Buenafe and Sunday Salvacion, who had 13 apiece. Rookie Vic Manuel and Chris Ross also had eight each. Denzel Bowles paced San Mig Coffee with 37 points and rookie Alex Mallari had 12, but the rest could only managed single digits with PJ Simon scoring nine and James Yap providing eight. Top seed Alaska Aces battles no. 8 Air 21 Express while second seed Rain or Shine faces no. 7 Ginebra Kings today in the quarterfinal round at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.