Meralco stays winless in EASL

Sports

IT’S been a total outage so far for the Meralco Bolts in the East Asia Super League (EASL).

The Bolts still couldn’t break into the win column after they bowed to the Taoyuan Pilots, 72-82, on Sunday night, Nov. 2, Taoyuan Arena Taipei.

Meralco dropped to 0-2 (win-loss) as it faltered again after starting the tournament with a 72-81 defeat to the Ryukyu Golden Kings.

Against the Pilots, the Bolts got off to a faulty start and paid dearly for it as they failed to overcome a 17-point deficit. The Bolts were still down by 14 points in the final two minutes but made the game more respectable when they launched an 8-0 run that brought them within 72-78 with only 32 seconds left.

Amdy Dieng and Ta-You Kuan shut the door on the Bolts by sinking four straight free throws as the Pilots stayed undefeated with their second straight victory.

William Artino led the winning squad with 20 points and 17 rebounds while import Alec Brown tallied 18 markers and eight boards. Chun-Hsiang Lu contributed 14 points.

Ismael Romero, Meralco’s Puerto Rican import, collected 26 points and 17 rebounds while Rondae Hollis-Jefferson wound up 22 points, eight rebounds, and four assists.

THE SCORES:

TAOYUAN (82) - Artino 20, Brown 18, Lu 14, Kwan 8, Dieng 7, Chen 7, Pai 3. Li 3, Millner 2, Lin 0.

MERALCO (72) - Romero 26, Hollis-Jefferson 22, Banchero 9, Newsome 6, Hodge 4, Almazan 2, Comia 2, Quinto 1, Bates 0, Maliksi 0, Black 0.QUARTERSCORES: 21-16; 43-30; 64-47; 82-72.(CCM)