• Home
  • Basketball
  • Meralco rides Tony Bishop’s heroics down the stretch to beat TNT
A basketball player blocks a shot during a game.

Meralco rides Tony Bishop’s heroics down the stretch to beat TNT

Tony Bishop delivered the goods for the Meralco Bolts when they needed it most, scoring five straight points in crunchtime to propel them to a hard-earned 83-80 victory in the 2021 PBA Governors’ Cup on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

With the score tied at 76-all with under four minutes left, Bishop completed an and-one and added a short jumper to shove the Bolts into the driver’s seat, 81-76, time down to 2:42. A free-throw by Cliff Hodge pushed their lead to six, 82-76, with 1:58 remaining.

Two free-throws by Jayson Castro and a deuce by Mikey Williams allowed TNT to pull to within two, 80-82, with 39 seconds left, but Chris Newsome split his charities to give Meralco an 83-80 lead with just nine seconds left in the intense match.

Cliff Hodge

Kelly Williams had a chance to send the game to overtime but missed his three-point try as time expired to give Meralco their second win in as many games.

Bishop finished with 36 points and 17 rebounds while Newsome backed him up with 15 markers, five boards, and four assists. Allein Maliksi also came off the bench and gave the Bolts a spark with 10 markers.

Roger Pogoy paced TNT, which dropped to 1-2, with 25 points and 12 rebounds. Mikey Williams chipped in 24. However, TNT’s import Mckenzie Moore had another dismal outing, putting up just four points and seven boards in 17 foul-plagued minutes.

Explore Sulit!