PBA: Aaron Black, KJ McDaniels deliver when Meralco needed them most

MANILA, Philippines-When Meralco’s main plan to shut down Converge import Jamaal Franklin failed, the Bolts relied on two key players to deliver the goods.

Defense is usually the bedrock for a good offense and that’s what coach Norman Black had in mind during Meralco’s 132-129 overtime win over Converge in the PBA Governor’s Cup tournament on Friday.

However, Franklin, still came up big with a stellar triple-double of 57 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists.

“Tonight, a lot of focus on Franklin because he caught the ball the majority of the time. He can make shots, threes, get to the basket, get to the foul line and not miss the foul line. A lot of our defense is organized around how to control him and not make him It blew us away even though he finally did,” Black said at the Araneta Coliseum.

And when the defense failed, they all made this defense even more aggressive when they found KJ McDaniels and Player of the Game Aaron Black on offense.

“In overtime, we just cut the defense and tried to stop. As much as possible, we wanted to bring the basketball to KJ or Aaron because that’s what he did for us,” explained the top coach.

The Bolts doubled Franklin in the extra period, frustrating him to pick up six fouls and ejection from the game.

Meanwhile, McDaniels battled his import counterpart with a double-double of 33 points and 12 rebounds.

Black finished with a total of 28 markers, eight boards and five dimes but made sure to acknowledge his teammates in the process.

“[I give] credit to my friends. As you can see in the last part, Raymond (Almazan) sealed another big one so I got a layup so this (win) is credited to the bigs and the team to find me,” said the playmaker.

Black also acknowledged the steely backup point guard’s nerve in overtime.

“It was a total team effort for us. KJ came up big at the end and Anjo (Caram) closed it out with two big free throws.

WATCH: Meralco’s Allein Maliksi was ejected late in overtime against Converge for Flagrant Foul 2 on Barkley Ebona. | @jonasterradoINQ pic.twitter.com/l8SSsysF8c

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Caram barely played in regulation but was benched by the coaching staff in the dying seconds of OT after a scuffle between Allein Maliksi and Barkley Eboña.

He was tasked with the big task of sinking two technical and cool free throws to give the Bolts a four-point lead that they would hang on to until the buzzer.

Coach Black is also quick to explain his stance on the endgame brawl, saying he was only on the court to defend the ward.

“I just believe that if there is any kind of rumble, you have to catch your own players. I tried to stop Allein, that was my whole goal there.

The win puts Meralco in a two-way tie with the FiberXers for fifth seed with a twin record of six wins and four losses.