Bolts catch last bus to semis

MANILA, Philippines — Sparked by “Playoff Mode” Chris Newsome, Meralco restored power in the endgame against rallying Rain or Shine to light its path to the PBA Season 50 Philippine Cup semifinals.

Newsome spearheaded the recovery from a blown 11-point lead as the Bolts put together a clinching 98-89 victory over ROS last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

As he always did many times over, Newsome stepped up to the plate and dropped 16 of his 31 points in the last 5:40 minutes to bail the Bolts out of trouble after the E-Painters caught up at 77-all.

With this roaring follow-up to their 96-79 win last Saturday, the seventh-seeded Meralco completed its twice-to-win reversal over No. 2 ROS and set up a Final Four clash with No. 3 TNT.

Newsome and Co. ended a three-conference drought of missing the semis, reaching this stage for the first time since going all the way to their breakthrough title in the Season 48 All-Filipino.

The Bolts also stopped the E-Painters’ four-conference streak of semifinal appearances on veteran Gabe Norwood’s PBA swan song.

“It’s been hard after that championship. Some of the teams improved, they got younger and we have our EASL stint. Ang hirap talaga gawin pareho. But I think we did enough,” said Meralco coach Luigi Trillo.

“Just proud of the team’s resilience. We didn’t start out well (in the conference), we were 3-4 and we had to win three straight (to avoid early elimination). So this is special,” he added.

Chris Banchero backstopped Newsome with 21 as CJ Cansino added 14 and Bong Quinto chipped in 11.

Adrian Nocum showed the way for ROS with 29 with Gian Mamuyac netting 20 and Norwood taking his final bow with three.