CONVERGE did away with its slow start enroute to a wire-to-wire 110-94 whipping of Meralco Wednesday that stretched its winning streak to four in the PBA Commissioner's Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Jordan Heading finished with a game-high 30 points on top of eight assists, Cheick Diallo added 24 points and 19 assists and Justine Baltazar churned out his best scoring game yet with 16 points in leading the FiberXers' assault.
Schonny Winston and Alec Stockton tossed in at least 10 points each as Converge raced to an early 16-point lead before stretching that to a high of 20 in the fourth period before officially securing a sixth win in eight games.
For acting head coach Franco Atienza, one key for the win that was a far cry from his FiberXers' 17-point fightback against Barangay Ginebra last Saturday was catching Meralco playing without some of its key players. "Medyo they were plagued by injuries," he pointed out.
"Maybe we were lucky, they were not at their best form although they really competed now. Medyo na-challenge din kami," added Atienza before acknowledging his team did the necessary adjustments to avoid falling into a deep hole like in their other recent games.
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"Our previous wins we were trailing at the start, pero ngayon parang we were in control. So it's nice when you have a lesson from the last game na hindi ka nasaktan, kasi we had a slow start then pero kahit papaano we were able to come back and nakuha namin 'yung win," said Atienza.
"Usually kasi when you learn a lesson minsan galing sa talo kaya mo nalalaman. So going to this game we looked at that, kung saan kami nagkamali in that game against Ginebra and kahit papaano nagawan namin ng paraan na mai-correct namin.
"But again... we were just lucky na nakuha namin ang Meralco na hindi pa sila super 100 percent."
Akil Mitchell led Meralco with 29 points and 18 rebounds while Bong Quinto threw in 23 points and Cliff Hodge 10.
But Chris Newsome only had nine points in a rare so-so game and Chris Banchero and Allein Maliksi, both seeing action for only the first time in the mid-conference combined for only 11 points for the Bolts, who dropped to a 3-2 slate.
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The likes of Raymond Almazan, Brandon Bates and CJ Cansino remain injured but hopefully would be fit enough when Meralco plays its next game on Jan. 5 against Eastern. (NC)
The Scores :
CONVERGE 110 - Heading 30, Diallo 24, Baltazar 16, Winston 11, Stockton 10, Arana 7, Andrada 5, Racal 3, Delos Santos 2, Santos 2, Fornillos 0, Nieto 0, Ambohot 0, Caralipio 0, Javillonar 0.
MERALCO 94 - Mitchell 29, Quinto 23, Hodge 10, Newsome 9, Banchero 6, Maliksi 5, Reyson 3, Pascual 3, Black 2, Rios 2, Caram 2, Torres 0.
QUARTERS : 26-20, 58-41, 85-66, 110-94
