DIFFERENT ENDING WITH RHJ?

MANILA, Philippines — Meralco is out of the playoff picture in EASL, failing to survive a do-or-die duel with Ryukyu at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last Wednesday. If Rondae Hollis-Jefferson played, would he have made a difference against the Golden Kings?

RHJ went down with an Achilles tear in Meralco’s previous game, a 93-91 squeaker over Macau in Ilagan, Isabela, last December. It was the Bolts’ third straight win and brought the team to the doorstep of the EASL playoffs which start in Macau on March 18. The obstacle was Ryukyu and Meralco had to beat the Okinawa squad by at least six in their showdown.

Without RHJ, Bolts coach Nenad Vucinic rejigged his lineup. Meralco had built a strong chemistry with RHJ playing alongside Justin Brownlee, “world” import Ismael Romero and Asian heritage recruit Sina Vahedi. Then, Chris Newsome suffered an MCL sprain in Game 3 of the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals last Jan. 9 and missed the last two contests in the TNT series. He couldn’t be confirmed to play against Ryukyu until the day before the clash and hardly practiced but begged to give it a shot. Vucinic took a chance in enlisting rookie Jason Brickman who hadn’t played a game with Meralco and it wasn’t certain if he could immediately make an impact.

Meralco had three prospects to choose from to replace RHJ and one was former PBA import Cameron Clark who had just finished playing for Hong Kong Eastern in EASL. “It’s hard to get a quality import for only one (guaranteed) game,” said Meralco coach Luigi Trillo. “Normally, imports want a more secure and longer contract.” Eventually, the vacant slot went to NLEX import Cady Lalanne, who was already in town practicing with the Road Warriors.

While Meralco was juggling players, Ryukyu stayed intact with four wins in a row and the team’s morale was sky-high after coach Dai Oketani was named Japan’s new national mentor a week ago. There was no problem integrating players. Former Sacramento King Jack Cooley is on his seventh year with Ryukyu. Naturalized import Alex Kirk, a former Cleveland Cavalier, has played in Japan since 2017-18 and is in the national team pool. Oketani picked Vic Law, on his fourth B-League campaign, over Damyean Dotson as his second “world” import. Ryukyu passed on drafting an Asian heritage import.

Chemistry was evident right off the bat in the game against Meralco as Ryukyu surged to a 20-point lead in the first half. The Golden Kings ran their patterns with precision, executing pick-and-rolls, kicking out to open shooters and leaving Meralco in defensive disarray. It took three quarters before the Bolts got their bearings. Ryukyu was on top by 16 entering the fourth frame. Then, with 9:17 to go, the Bolts began to unravel. A 7-0 blast cut the gap to nine. Meralco blew opportunities to trim the deficit further but missed two triples, a layup, a two-point jumper and a free throw before Ryo Sadohara broke Ryukyu’s 4 1/2 minute-silence. Still, Meralco didn’t give up and the lead was down to five with 48 seconds left. There just wasn’t enough time to get over the hump.

While Meralco was busy defending 5-9 spitfire Ryuichi Kishimoto even putting 6-9 Romero on him, Oketani unleashed 6-1 Yoshiyuki Matsuwaki who never averaged in double figure points since joining Ryukyu in 2022-23. Matsuwaki, 28, fired 18 points on six triples in 26:26 minutes to pace the Golden Kings. Two other locals scored in twin digits. For Meralco, the top local scorer was CJ Cansino with seven. Ryukyu ended the elims with a 5-1 record and advanced to the semis outright to play the winner of the quarterfinal game between Utsonomiya and New Taipei. Alvark is also in the semis and will play the winner of the other quarterfinal match between Taoyuan and Seoul.

2026-02-14T16:31:27Z