ALLAN THE MAN

The San Mig Coffee Mixers used tough defense to go on a late run to get away from the Meralco Bolts, 83-73, in the opening game of their best-of-five semifinals series on Sunday at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.

It was a tight defensive struggle between the two teams for most of the game, with Meralco behind by only a single point midway through the fourth quarter, 70-69, after a desperation three-pointer by John Wilson to beat the 24-second buzzer.

But the Mixers went down to business, scoring the next nine points in a furious run capped by a two-handed fastbreak dunk by Marc Pingris to finally put Meralco away.

“It was a great defensive struggle,” said San Mig Coffee coach Tim Cone. “Both teams are really great defensively.”

San Mig Coffee was sluggish to start the game, and Cone admitted that the team was still feeling the effects of its tough series against Alaska in the quarterfinals.

“No doubt we were emotionally drained from our last game against Alaska,” said Cone, who added his team “lacked some energy” to start the game.

“We just hung around until we got something going.”

Joe Devance had 17 points to lead San Mig Coffee, while James Yap and Marqus Blakely posted 15 apiece. Blakely added 10 rebounds and two blocks.

But the Mixers on the defensive end, holding Meralco to just 36.3 shooting from the field. They hounded Meralco import Mario West to just nine points after making just the of 16 shots (18 percent).

Cone expects more of the same for the rest of the series.

“I don’t think this is going to be a pretty series,” said Cone. “This is going to be a battle of attrition.”

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