The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel scored an important victory in Game 1 of their semifinals series against the Meralco Bolts to take a 1-0 lead in the matchup. Will the Barangay keep it going and go up 2-0 after Sunday’s meeting? Or, will the Bolts recharge enough and tie the series up?

Catch this game live on Friday,  May 19 at 3:00 pm, Manila time.

Meralco Bolts (0-1)

Projected Starting Five:

• Christopher Banchero
• Allein Maliksi
• Chris Newsome
• Clifford Hodge
• Raymond Almazan

The Meralco fell short of its goal to take the 1-0 lead in the series versus Ginebra, but the Bolts still had some positive takeaways from their 92-88 loss to the Barangay in Game 1 on Friday. For one, Chris Newsome looked fantastic. He was an all-around nightmare for the Barangay, as he finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists in 33 minutes. Meralco also went +10 in shots taken from the field and +6 in the rebounding battle in Gamed 1 — two good signs for the Bolts, who covered the spread as a 5.5-point underdogs.

 Out of their 51 boards, though, only 10 came from both Raymond Almaza and Chris Hodge, who will have to do better in that area in Game 2. Nevertheless, Almazan and Hodge combined for an efficient 9/14 shooting from the floor. They also did a seemingly fine job at containing Christian Standhardinger, as Ginebra’s big man only had 14 points and seven rebounds while getting limited to only 6/16 shooting from the floor.

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel (1-0)

Projected Starting Five:

• Scottie Thompson
• Maverick Ahanmisi
• Louis Cu
• Japeth Aguilar
• Christian Standhardinger

Who else but good ole’ Stanley Pringle to rescue the Barangay in Game 1 against Meralco. The former Penn State Nittany Lions star led the way for Ginebra in the series opener with 22 points coming off the bench. Meanwhile, Louis Cu added 18 points on the strength of an excellent 6/8 shooting from behind the arc. 

With Standhardinger and former league MVP Scottie Thompson seemingly not in their element, the Barangay flexed their depth and coaxed great production from Pringle and Cu. Despite Standhardinger and Thompson going just 8/24 from the field, Ginebra managed to shoot a solid 49.3 percent from the field. Still, Ginebra’s going to need their top weapons to show up sooner than later and will also have to cut down on their miscues after committing 15 turnovers to just 11 by Meralco in Game 1.

Picks

Spread: Ginebra (-3.5)

Over/Under: Under (176.0)