BOOSTERS TOP KINGS, HAND ABANILLA FIRST WIN
Petron Blaze cut loose from a tight seesawing game in the homestretch and handed Gie Abanilla his first win as PBA head coach with a 101-95 thumping of Barangay Ginebra in the PBA Governors Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Sunday night.
Elijah Millsap, Alex Cabagnot, Arwind Santos, Doug Kramer and Marcio Lassiter gave the Boosters a blazing finish, allowing the team to rebound from their 83-89 upset by the Meralco Bolts Friday in the same venue.
“It should be something special,” said Abanilla of his first win since taking over from Olsen Racela as Petron bench chieftain.
“It’s my first as head coach. Of course, iba yan. At the same time, a win is a win. Syempre nakakatuwa rin naman yung mga panalo ko dati. But this time, there’s a lot of expectation, and it’s a big challenge,” Abanilla also said.
Millsap, Santos, Kramer and Lassiter worked on a decisive eight-to-nothing run in the last two minutes to break the heart of the Kings and the Ginebra fans that anticipated a good night with Japeth Aguilar’s addition to the Ginebra team.
“The players really played well defensively, and our transition offense also worked us. That’s the key,” said Abanilla, having previous triumphs in the league merely as a sub during the leaves or ejections of Yeng Guiao at Red Bull and Siot Tanquingcen at San Miguel.
Kramer put in double-double numbers only in his second game as a Petron Booster while Millsap, Lassiter, Cabagnot and Santos came through with double-digit outputs spoiling Aguilar’s and coach Ato Agustin’s debuts with the Gin Kings.
It was a close game with the count tied at 93-all before the Boosters pummeled the Kings at the finish.
After tying the count at 93-all on two charities by LA Tenorio with 2:22 left, the Kings didn’t score a basket again until with just five ticks left – a garbage twinner from Dior Lowhorn.
“It’s good we played good defense on Dior. He’s so big and we had a hard time defending against him,” said Abanilla.
Lowhorn played 39 minutes and logged game highs of 29 points and 11 rebounds.
Agustin, a one-time champion coach with Petron, fielded Aguilar for only 18 minutes, and the Gilas Pilipinas mainstay responded with eight markers, five boards and one block.
The Boosters delivered a more balanced game with Millsap topscoring with 24 and Lassiter, Cabagnot, Kramer and Santos adding 23, 18, 17 and 12, respectively.
Kramer also got away with 10 points while playing as the main defender of the stocky Lowhorn. (SB)
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