Meralco Bolts in Game 5 of the PBA philippine Cup Finals against San Miguel Beermen. -MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net Now that they are within a win of their first-ever PBA championship, the Meralco Bolts are determined to not let a golden opportunity slip away.
Their first chance to close the series out is on Sunday night in Game 6 of the Philippine Cup Finals at Smart Araneta Coliseum, where the franchise that endured so many title heartbreaks can make those defeats a distant memory with another victory over the favored San Miguel Beermen. “Nobody remembers second place. You got to win one to gain respect,” coach Luigi Trillo said late Friday after the Bolts took Game 5, 92-88, for a 3-2 lead in the series.
History favors Meralco since 15 of 19 teams in the last 12 years that won a Game 5 to take a pivotal advantage in the Finals have gone on to wrest the championship trophy. But San Miguel is no stranger to overcoming such a precarious deficit, winning the titles in the 2019 and 2022 Philippine Cup against Magnolia and TNT, respectively, in a series-comebacking fashion. And the Beermen have dug themselves out of an even deeper hole before, erasing a 0-3 deficit in the 2015-2016 Philippine Cup Finals to stun Alaska and emerge victorious.
The potential clincher or potential setup to a deciding Game 7 will see if the Bolts can finally get the job after falling short in four previous Finals appearances, all against Barangay Ginebra. Meralco, under the collective tutelage of Trill.
