Of course he had a lot of help from his teammates too.
KJ McDaniels put Meralco Bolts on his broad shoulders and led the team to a thrilling 124-117 win over TNT Tropang Giga in Game 2 of the PBA Governors’ Cup semifinals on Sunday.
The hulking import powered the Bolts with 39 points, 20 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and the same number of blocks to even the best-of-five series at one game apiece.
Coach Norman Black was pleased.
“The level of competition right now as far as imports [are concerned], is really high. The guys are really high-level players. You gotta really bring you're a game every night. That’s the message I tried to get across to KJ,” Black said.
His prized import responded big time.
“The way he played in Game 1 wasn't enough for us to win the game so he would have to raise his level. And right from the start you can see the difference in the way he played. He was active defensively, he was controlling the boards and scoring inside with authority today,” he said.
But to beat the high-octane TNT, the Bolts had to revert to their strength.
“Last game medyo slow kami out of the gates. We didn't get our rhythm. This game gusto talaga namin to move the ball to get back on defense kasi TNT is a really good offensive team. Really want to get back on defense and make sure they don't get a lot of fastbreaks,” said Aaron Black, who also had a solid outing with 28 points and 10 assists.
The elder Black agreed.
“Strategy-wise, [like what] Aaron said we just wanted to get back on defense. That was something we did very poorly on Game 1. We thought if we could back on defense then we could defend them,” he said.
Game 3 is on Wednesday.