Despite making it to the quarterfinals following its win against NorthPort, Meralco aims to further polish its play with just two games left in its group stage campaign in the PBA Season 49 Governors' Cup.
Despite Meralco prevailing over NorthPort which gave the squad its pass to the PBA Season 49 Governors' Cup quarterfinals, both Bolts coach Luigi Trillo and veteran Chris Banchero agree that the squad still needs to improve.
Trillo recognized the positives in Meralco's 114-104 win over the Batang Pier Saturday night, Sept. 14, — the squad picked up on defense in the second half and dominated the rebounding department — but pointed out that there are still some things that need tweaking.
[WATCH: Meralco downs NorthPort as Batang Pier lose Venky Jois early to injury | PBA Highlights]
"We got better this time around. [In the third period], 21 points to them. They started out the game [by scoring] 37 points [in the first quarter]. That was the thing that we probably talked about at the half defensively, and I think we did a better job also on them," said Trillo, as the Bolts improved to 6-2 behind pacesetting and fellow quarters-bound TNT (6-1) in Group A play.
"We did some good things: We outrebounded them 63 to 29; we beat them in offensive rebounds (31-5)... Clearly, we won the game, but we still feel we have some things to improve," he also said.
As for Banchero, he rued the points given up by the Bolts against the Batang Pier and emphasized the need to get better, especially defensively, heading to the quarters.
"I'm glad we closed it out, but I think everybody on the team understands that we need to play a lot better basketball, especially going into these playoffs. The basketball, it's just got to get to a better level especially defensively," said Banchero.
"How many points did we give up today? 104. We gave up almost 40 points in the first. I know when we watch the film, it's not going to be a pretty game. But I'm happy we got the win, of course," he added.
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While Meralco is slowly getting its injury-hit guys back with Raymond Almazan (knee) and Cliff Hodge (back) seeing action, NorthPort lost its import Venky Jois late in the first quarter.
"He went down. We hope he gets better," said Trillo.
Meralco will try to take it up a notch when it takes on streaking Converge and also-ran Terrafirma for their last two assignments on Sept. 18 and Sept. 21, respectively.
(With reports from Pao Ambat)