The next few weeks will be tough for Meralco as it faces a stacked schedule not just in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) but also in the East Asia Super League (EASL).

Bolts head coach Luigi Trillo admitted that the battle will not be easy as they want to do well in the playoffs of the PBA while clinching their first title in the EASL.

The Bolts will be facing bitter rival Barangay Ginebra in a best-of-five quarterfinal series. But in between, they will confront the Macau Black Bears in the opening salvo of the EASL on 2 October at the Mall of Asia Arena.

“The hard thing for us, I think the new thing for us, is we have a game of EASL right in the middle of it. So, how do we manage that? We’ve got a best-of-five series and before Game 4, we’ll play that first game (in the EASL),” said Trillo, who joined his coaching staff in receiving the Baby Dalupan Coach of the Year award during the 30th PBA Press Corps Awards Night on Tuesday.

“We want to do good in both because we’ll be carrying the flag to EASL against quality teams. So, we’ll have to manage that but we’re confident.”

Despite the killer schedule, Meralco can field two imports in the EASL with DJ Kennedy and Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player Ange Kouame on top of its list.

Trillo also expects guards Aaron Black and Allein Maliksi, who is coming back from a left adductor strain on his hip, to step up big for the Bolts in the prestigious inter-club tourney.

“You know, guys have been working hard in practice. We have Ange Kouame and DJ Kennedy and the guys are starting to get healthy,” Trillo said.