The Meralco Bolts looked poised in the first half of Game 3 – Allen Durham was cooking like he always does, the transition offense was there, and the ball movement looked good. It even led to a 51-42 lead at the half.

The problem is basketball has two halves, and the Bolts probably forgot that as they looked different and seemingly felt overwhelmed by TNT KaTropa’s adjustments following the break.

Needing to be the aggressor in the second half, TNT responded by outscoring Meralco in the third quarter by 15 points and showing off some fine clutch gene when it was needed late in the final frame.

After trading a handful of baskets in the final few minutes, a high-flying KJ McDaniels tip-in with just 36.3 ticks left gave TNT a three-point lead, which eventually resulted in a 101-97 final score.

McDaniels had an off-night and the locals cleaned it up nicely

Just like what we had hoped for in our Game 3 preview, the locals answered the challenge to not rely too much on their import. With KJ McDaniels struggling to score all night, (7-for-21 for 18 points), all of his co-starters stepped up and hit doubl-digit points.

Troy Rosario had a team-high 25 points that included five three-pointers, Jayson Castro double-doubled with 17 points and 10 assists, while Roger Pogoy and Ray Ray Parks scored 15 and 12, respectively.

Is Meralco done?

It’s tough. They showed a lot of fight in the first half and in the final minutes when they tried to recover from their third quarter mess, but it was just too late as their momentum was out of whack already.

Allen Durham led the way as usual by logging 32 points, 19 rebounds, and seven assists, and the backcourt of Baser Amer (19 points) and Chris Newsome (20 points) provided some decent help. The rest of the Bolts stayed quiet, though.