MERALCO buckled down to work early to roll back San Miguel Beer, 111-97, in Game 4 and even their best-of-seven semifinal series in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Aaron Black played another solid, all-around game as he flirted wth a near triple double with 21 points, seven rebounds and seven assists — all team-highs –for the Bolts, who led by as much as 22 points in the fourth quarter.

Allein Maliksi contributed 19 points, Cliff Hodge added 18 points and seven rebounds, and Raymond Almazan had 17 points and six rebounds for Meralco, which led from start to finish

Bong Quinto also contributed 11 points.

But while Meralco displayed balanced firepower, only three players from San Miguel scored in double digits — CJ Perez, Marcio Lassiter and June Mar Fajardo.

Perez topscored with 24 points and eight rebounds and Lassiter had 23 points on 4-of-7 three-point shooting.

Fajardo had a double-double of 21 points and 13 rebounds.

Vic Manuel and Jericho Cruz were limited to single digit with nine and two points, respectively.

“We’re trying to take advantage of what we saw in Game 3. We made the adjustments on how to attack their defense because their defense has been pretty good so far in the series. And it worked out for us,” said Mralco coach Norman Black in an interview posted st the official pBza website.

“Offensively, we were able to go to our bigs, our bigs had a lot of confidence tonight. They took their shots, they made their shots, Raymond especially, and that was the key,” addedBlack.

In the second game, TNT defeated Magnolia, 102-84, to take a 3-1 lead in their own best-of-seven semiginal series.

The scores:

First game

Meralco (111) — Black 21, Maliksi 19, Hodge 18, Almazan 17, Quinto 11, Newsome 8, Baclao 4, Belo 4, Hugnatan 3, Jose 2, Pascual 2, Banchero 2, Pasaol 0, Caram 0, Johnson 0.
San Miguel (97) — Perez 24, Lassiter 23, Fajardo 21, Manuel 9,Brondial 9, Canete 4, Zamar 3, Cruz 2, Tautuaa 1, Pessumal 1, Ross 0, Enciso 0, Herndon 0.
Quarterscores: 36-23, 58-53, 88-71, 111-97.

Second game

TNT (102) – Erram 19, Pogoy 18, M.Williams 15, Rosario 15, Castro 9, Khobuntin 9, Reyes 6, K.Williams 4, Cruz 3, Alejandro 2, Ganuelas-Rosser 2, Banal 0, Marcelo 0, Montalbo 0, Tungcab 0.
.Magnolia (84) – Snagalang 19, Lee 17, Dionisio 14, Reavis 7, Barroca 5, Dela Rosa 4, Corpuz 4, Jalalon 4, Wong 4, Zaldivar 2, Abueva 2, Brill 2, Laput 0, Escoto 0, Ahanmisi 0.
Quarterscores: ,18-15, 42-38, 70-54, 102-84.

Games Friday:

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)
3 p.m.– TNT vs.Magnolia
6 p.m. — Meralco vs. San Miguel