Jeffers raring for first victory with Ginebra: ‘Whatever we have to do to win’
For Othyus Jeffers, Ginebra had the perfect plan but it came back to bite them.
Opting to let Al Thornton loose and negate his supporting cast, the Gin Kings paid for that mistake dearly, as the former Florida State standout went for 50 points to lead NLEX over Ginebra in overtime, 114-112, in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
“Our game plan was to let him score. We were supposed to stop everybody else from doing it,” said Jeffers. “There was a lot of breakdowns. It’s very rare one person could score that many points and still get a win.”
Jeffers, the shortest import this conference at 6-foot-2, tipped his hat off to Thornton, who led an inspired Road Warriors team to the victory on Friday.
“Al is one of the few players who can pull it off. He had a great supporting cast that when he was in his slump and missing shots, they came to get key rebounds and key free throws. They had his back and that team
won.”
Aside from Thornton, NLEX also drew huge contributions from Kevin Alas, Sean Anthony, and Jonas Villanueva in the offensive end.
With this game already behind them, Jeffers said that the Gin Kings need a sense of urgency now as they try to avoid a 0-2 hole. Ginebra returns to the court on Sunday against GlobalPort.
“Whatever we have to do to win, I don’t care what it is. We got to find out what it is,” he said. “We played good basketball. We just had a couple of letdowns, we had an opportunity to win it at the end of the game, and we had a good play, a wide open shot. I think we beat them in every pretty much category except free throws. We played a good game. It’s just that we didn’t do exactly all coach said on the board.”
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