By REYNALD MAGALLON
A team that is craving for glory won’t be easily satisfied by just clinching its breakthrough Philippine Cup Finals appearance.
After also achieving plenty of firsts – first Game 7 win and first best-of-seven series victory – for the franchise, Meralco, now on its fifth try in the Finals, might as well leave it all out and go all the way to claim what could be the team’s very first PBA title since joining the league in 2010.
And while the Bolts were celebrating in jubilation after the sweet 78-69 victory over bitter rival Barangay Ginebra at the FPJ Arena in San Jose, Batangas on Friday, May 31, it was not lost to Meralco that there are bigger things ahead to conquer for the team.
Eyes on the big price as they say.
“We are not happy just to be in the Finals, we’re not happy that we just made it. It’s not gonna mean anything unless we go all the way,” stressed Meralco head coach Luigi Trillo as his team arranged another best-of-seven affair, this time, against the defending champion San Miguel.
While beating Ginebra, which had Meralco’s number in their big playoff matches, along with the franchise’s first all-Filipino Finals appearance are big for the team, the Bolts are refusing to get too carried away by the achievements.
“That’s an amazing accomplishment but still we didn’t go to this conference for that accomplishment. Our accomplishment is to try to win it all” said Banchero, talking about the franchise’s breakthrough Finals appearance in the Philippine Cup.
With Banchero along with Allein Maliksi providing the veteran presence, Bong Quinto and Chris Newsome the firepower, and Raymond Almazan, and semis series revelation Brandon Bates the defensive presence, Nenad Vucinic alongside Trillo the coaching wits, Meralco feels they have the right pieces to topple the mighty SMB and win it all.
“It’s a tough task but this team can do it and we have the coaching staff and the players to achieve that,” added the veteran who starred in the Game 7 win with 24 points.
“We’re going against the top team of this conference and they won the championship last year and obviously they had a really good team and really good coaching staff but so do we,” he added.
Good thing, even after the grueling seven-game series, the Bolts will have enough time to rest and recuperate with the Finals kicking off on Wednesday, June 5 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
