Meralco coach Luigi Trillo took the blame for their sorry setback to TNT Tropang 5G that pushed them to a 0-2 hole in their Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup best-of-seven semifinal series late Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Trillo admitted that he was outclassed by veteran mentor Chot Reyes, who rallied the Tropang 5G to a masterful 109-92 victory that put them just two wins away from punching a trip to the finals.

With Reyes, a seven-time PBA Coach of the Year awardee, barking instructions from the sidelines, the Tropang 5G were red-hot, firing 44-of-80 from the field while knocking down 12 out of their 28 attempts from the three-point territory. They also held the Bilts to a 30-of-72 shooting with only one three-pointer.

Trillo rued their sluggish performance, saying that the intensity of TNT was “at another level.”

“Didn’t play well today obviously,” said Trillo, who obviously missed the presence of active consultant Nenad Vucevic, who flew to New Zealand to attend the wedding of his daughter.

“They hit a lot of threes. I just felt that their intensity (TNT) was at another level. That’s why they are Talk ‘N Text. You have to give credit to them with the way they played today.”

“They’re hitting every shot. They were on point.”

Aside from their defense, Trillo made special mention of Calvin Oftana and Jordan Heading, who dropped 26 and 24 points, respectively, to help the Tropang 5G dictate the tempo en route to the convincing victory.

“ Their defense was bar none. Oftana played like Calvin Oftana, the best forward right now. And Heading played well. Hats off to Talk ‘N Text. They outplayed us every quarter,” Trillo said.

“More than anything, that’s on me first. Looking at the guys, when they (opponent) take it to another level, we should be able to match it. We didn’t do that tonight. We didn’t shoot the ball well.”

Actually, Meralco started the series on a sizzling note. The Bolts erected a 21-point lead early before collapsing that led to a 95-100 setback in Game 1.

The only thing that Trillo blamed for their Game 1 setback was the 47 free throws awarded to TNT, which was way higher than their 19 freebies.

This time, Meralco had 35 charities while TNT had only 11 but still emerged victorious.

“I think when a coach is in his flow. and obviously, he has the pulse of the team and we are winning, that’s very hard. When somebody comes in, it’s different. But I’ll take this one. It’s on me,” Trillo said.

“We only had 14 fouls. We had a lot of free throws. It’s funny, we complained about the free throws. We had a lot of free throws, but our energy was not here whatsoever.”

Still, Trillo believes that the series is still far from over.