WEEK 1 of the PBA Season 47 Philippine Cup comes to a close today with Governors Cup runner-up Meralco and Phoenix Super LPG squaring off in the 7:15 mainer of a Saturday bill at the Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo.
The Bolts are back in the grind seven weeks after losing the fourth installment of their Governors' Cup finals rivalry with the Barangay Ginebra Kings.
From their Season 46 showing also marked by a third-place finish in the Philippine Cup, coach Norman Black affected just a bit of a shakeup in his roster, acquiring center Kyle Pascual and Fil-Am player Franky Johnson.
Needless to say, the target for Black and his troops is to continue to improve as they are bent on working hard in their hope to finally get over the hump and nail the elusive first championship in Asia's first play-for-pay league.
With a solid core led by Chris Newsome, Raymond Almazan and Allen Maliksi, the Bolts had a breakthrough second-place finish in last year's all-Filipino elims only to fall in an ambush by fourth-ranked Magnolia in the best-of-seven semifinals, 4-2.
Sponsored content: And now comes a little improvement with the extra ceiling provided by Pascual and the grit, hustle and possibly firepower from Johnson.
Their initial test will be against a Phoenix side that dropped its opening game against San Miguel Beer, 108-100.
The Fuel Masters put up a good fight against June Mar Fajardo and his teammates, staying close and even enjoying a six-point lead largely behind the efforts of Matthew Wright, Jason Perkins and rookies Tyler Tio and Encho Serrano.
Serrano, the MVP in the 2022 Draft Combine, exploded for 15 in the first half then went silent while Tio, an Ateneo hotshot, came through with an awesome 5-of-5 three-point shooting and a total of 17 markers.
Wright proved himself as still the leader of the team, firing away 22 points while Perkins was also his old ways, delivering 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Sponsored content: Coach Topex Robinson is pushing his team to work harder to avoid dropping to a 0-2 hole.
