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Ginebra takes first crack at finals berth, looks to finish off San Miguel
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Even with the 2-1 lead, Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone insists there’s only one way to hurdle San Miguel Beer – battle all out.
That’s what the Gin Kings intend to do as they take the first of their two cracks at closing out their PBA Governors Cup best-of-five semifinal showdown at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Sunday.
“Closing out an opponent in a series in always hard. Closing out an opponent like SMB will be incredibly tough, almost hard to imagine,” said Cone. “But we are determined as we know the danger of having to go to a Game Five with them. We need to go all out.”
Cone said they have to be ready and focused just on the game at hand.
“It’s hard to look at that (the finals). If you look ahead it makes you kampante and you’re not focused. We want to stay what’s right in front of us,” Cone said.
The Gin Kings promise to play with a great resolve to nail another win they need to end the franchise’s long absence in PBA finals.
Ginebra has never been in the finals since the 2013 Commissioner’s Cup where the Gin Kings were swept in four games by the Alaska Milk Aces. And they’ve been without a crown since their 2007-08 Fiesta Conference title run with import Chris Alexander.
A cheering crowd of nearly 15,000 at the Big Dome stood as witness as Japeth Aguilar drained a 10-footer from the left flank at the buzzer Friday, lifting the Kings past the Beermen, 97-96, and into the 2-1 series lead.
“That was fun, a hard game. Both played to the highest of their ability, shot the ball well, and we just stayed in the game with our character,” said Cone.
“It was a huge shot from Japeth. The challenge of Sol (Mercado) and the rebounds of Scottie (Thompson) gave us extra possessions. That’s what a team is all about,” Cone also said.
It’s a classic also marked by big games by rookie Scottie Thompson, LA Tenorio and Justin Brownlee.
A regular triple-double performer for Perpetual Help during his college days, Thompson achieved the rare feat in the pros with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
The 5-foot-11 guard completed the triple-double by issuing a drop pass to Brownlee for a basket that tied the count at 92 with 2:22 left to play.
His superb effort went down as the first triple-double by a homegrown PBA player since Johnny Abarrientos had his with Alaska Milk in 1983.
LA Tenorio missed by an assist what could have been his own triple-double (20 markers, 10 rebounds and nine assists) while Brownlee came through with 25 markers and seven boards.
With June Mar Fajardo hobbled by fouls, Elijah Millsap and Arwind Santos led the battle for the Beermen, combining for all of their last 10 points.
In what’s easily the most exciting match in the tourney, the Gin Kings and the Beermen figured in a duel of runs in the first half then fought neck-and-neck all the way to a classic windup.
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