NO ONE’S COUNTING OUT GINEBRA JUST YET
Rain or Shine has beaten Barangay Ginebra San Miguel convincingly in their PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinal series and has moved a step closer to their second straight semifinals stint.
But head coach Yeng Guiao and his prized guard Gabe Norwood refused to give up the league’s crowd darling for dead.
“Definitely, it’s far from over,” Norwood told pba.ph. “We just took care of business tonight, but the series isn’t done yet.”
Guiao, who came up with a good game plan of shutting down the Kings’ top guns Mark Caguioa and LA Tenorio, was surprised with the outcome. But he’s not discounting a strong comeback led by these two veteran guards.
“It’s good that we were able to take out the rhythm of Caguioa and Tenorio, but they will be back in the second game,” added Guiao, whose team has just defeated Barangay Ginebra San Miguel for the first time in three matches this conference.
Caguioa, the reigning Most Valuable Player, struggled for 16 points on 4-for-13 shooting from the field.
Tenorio, on the other hand, was 2-for-7 from the field, and was limited to six markers.
Both players were held scoreless in the fourth period.
Caguioa said the number of turnovers his team committed was too much, allowing a fast team like Rain or Shine to connect on transition points that proved valuable.
“You cannot give many turnovers to a team like Rain or Shine,” said Caguioa, who accounted for three of the 17 turnovers of his squad. RJ
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