MANILA, Philippines: After pulling off a rare 91-73 demolition of Barangay Ginebra Friday night, Meralco coach Luigi Trillo believes the Bolts' big win was a combination of the absence of Scottie Thompson as well as the Gin Kings' failure to get their usual unselfish plays going.

Meralco held Ginebra to just 27 points in the first half, while Allein Maliksi sustained his hot shooting all game long that enabled the Bolts to score the runaway 18-point rout of the Gin Kings.

"We have those instances when we caught Ginebra flat footed, but they normally catch up and they used unconventional lineups, they use small lineups, they zone," Trillo said after the game.

"But we know Scottie changes that. And we took advantage of those opportunities, especially when Scottie was not around. I know we also played well, and caught them a little bit off," he added.

Meralco snapped a two-game skid to improve to 2-3 overall as the team heads to a two-week break.

Ginebra entered the game averaging 24 assists per contest. But with Meralco's defense at its best, the league's top crowd drawer only had 11 assists, while turning the ball over 19 times.

"It's good we have such a rivalry with Ginebra, but it's kind of a must-win for us," he said. "Credit active consultant Nenad (Vucinic) has been helping us since the last conference. Ginebra is not a pressure team. They move the ball around. They get a lot of assists. They average 24 assists, but today they had 11.

We did a good job defensively. We're more sound defensively."

Ginebra saw its two-game winning run to start the conference come to a halt.