MANILA, Philippines—Meralco head coach Norman Black pointed to their poor shooting and subpar bench production as the reasons for their slim loss to Barangay Ginebra in Game 1 of the 2019 PBA Governors' Cup finals on Tuesday night.

The Bolts led by as many as 10 points against the Gin Kings in the third quarter, but lost steam in the end game and absorbed a 91-87 setback to open the best-of-7 series.

"If you ask me what I think the problem was, we didn't shoot the ball very well today, particularly from 3-point land," Black said.

Meralco made just 7 of its 32 3-pointers for a 21.9% clip, a disappointing mark for a team that made over 36% of their 3-point shots in the elimination round. Their best shooters were silenced, with Allein Maliksi going 0-of-4 from bhined the arc, and Baser Amer making just one of five attempts.

"Ginebra does a good job of clogging the paint defensively, and they want you to shoot from the outside," Black said.

"Normally, we do a very good job of shooting a high percentage, but today we did not. That hurt us a great deal."

One miss was particularly painful: rookie Bong Quinto bricked a wide-open look from behind the arc with over 20 seconds left, while Meralco trailed 88-87.

"Even if we had some open looks, we just couldn't make them," Black rued.

It further hurt Meralco that their bench failed to give them their usual contributions. Maliksi, who is usually their scoring punch off the bench, missed all five of his field goals and had just two points in the game. Nard Pinto, another key reserve, played just 8 ineffective minutes. As a whole, Black got just six points from his bench.

"We just to get a little more production from the bench," said Black. "(I) haven't really studied the statistics yet but it felt like we didn't get any production at all from the bench."

If the Bolts want to equalize in Game 2 on Friday, they will need more from their reserves. The Meralco starters played long minutes, with Allen Durham logging nearly 46 minutes and Chris Newsome playing 42:30. Bong Quinto and Raymond Almazan both played over 30 minutes as well.

"I have to take my starters out for a little while to give them a rest," said Black.

"So we want to at least maintain whatever advantage we have or increase that advantage if possible. So I think my bench has to play a little bit better in Game 2."

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