PBA: Allen Durham powers Meralco to Game 3 win

In one sequence late in the fourth quarter, Allen Durham swatted Justin Brownlee driving to the basket then sized up Greg Slaughter and attacked him on the penetration for an and-1 finish.

The 2-time best import winner wasn't going to let his team lose a third straight game in the PBA Governors' Cup finals.

Durham finished with 38 points, 20 rebounds and 5 blocks as Meralco defeated Barangay Ginebra 94-81 in Game 3 of their best-of-7 series at Araneta Coliseum on Wednesday.

With the Bolts trailing 74-69 in the fourth, a determined Durham was unstoppable in the final 9 minutes, scoring 13 of Meralco's last 25 points on an assortment of power moves near the basket.

On defense, he was a monster, rejecting shots and crashing the boards.

It helped, too, that the Bolts' outside shots found their mark.

After its 3-point shooting percentage dropped to the low-20s in Games 1 and 2, Meralco made 11 of 31 from behind the arc for 35% in Game 3.

"The game becomes a lot easier if we make shots," Meralco coach Norman Black said. "We knocked down our outside shots, we did a much better job of making our shots.

"A lot of credit to Reynel Hugnatan, who stepped up and made a lot of 3s for us today."

Meralco needed everything from Durham on a night the Bolts saw Ranidel de Ocampo leave the game early because of a suspected calf injury, Baser Amer go scoreless and Chris Newsome struggle on offense.

For local support, Durham found it in the reserves, led by Hugnatan who filled de Ocampo's shoes with 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting from 3-point territory in nearly 40 minutes of playing time.

Two 3-pointers by Hugnatan bookended a 14-4 run to close out the game.

Meralco outscored Ginebra 40-20 in bench points.

Justin Brownlee finished with 15 points to lead Ginebra, his lowest output of these finals.

Game 4 is at Araneta Coliseum on Friday.

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