Bolts in quick rebound

Red-faced after its recent letdown against all-Filipino Rain or Shine, Meralco got its groove back with a 118-105 triumph over Titan Ultra for a share of second place in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup last night.

If their defensive efforts were lacking in Friday’s 102-109 defeat to an ROS side that battled without suspended import Jaylen Johnson, the Bolts essentially got the job done on the other end this time.

The Bolts kicked off their bounceback drive on a Palm Sunday with a stifling defense that held the Giant Risers to a lowly 27.3 percent clip in the first 12 minutes, with the latter’s reinforcement Michael Gilmore scoreless, en route to a 26-16 tear.

It was all-Meralco from there except for a spell in the fourth where a Brian Sajonia-led uprising put Titan to within striking distance, 89-97, with plenty of time left.

But the Bolts reasserted themselves and extinguished the threat with a major surge in the last 4:49 to seal their third win in four starts and catch idle Phoenix, NLEX and Terrafirma at No. 2 behind the unbeaten Elasto Painters.

The Giant Risers fell short of claiming the scalp of another heavyweight after a massive 119-112 upset of San Miguel last week and dropped to 1-3 overall.

Later, Justin Brownlee (33) and RJ Abarrientos (32) did the heavy lifting as Japeth Aguilar-less Ginebra (1-3) got back on track at the expense of Converge, 99-93.

The FiberXers (1-4) slumped to their fourth straight loss.

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