SMART CLARK GIGA CITY — Anticipation was high for the titanic clash between Japeth Aguilar and Raymond Almazan when Barangay Ginebra and Meralco would face off in the series opener of their 2020 PBA Philippine Cup semis, Wednesday night.
The Bolts have long craved someone to man the middle, and they couldn’t be happier to have the 6-foot-8 slotman in tow. It raised their confidence that they could now match up with their long-time tormentors size-wise.
Both players, however, only ended up with single-digit outputs, with Aguilar scoring nine and Almazan finishing with three. But it was Aguilar who came out on top as the Gin Kings zoomed to a 96-79 victory — drawing first blood in the best-of-five tilt.
His scoring was far from his 14.3-point average prior since he only had nine markers. Still, head coach Tim Cone feels extremely pleased to see his uber-athletic forward dominate on defense with his shot-altering presence.
“Japeth, I felt, was dominant on the defensive side tonight,” he said post-game. “He changed a lot of shots. A lot of guys missed shots when he was jumping at ‘em.
“I thought he was really dominant defensively.”
The league’s most accomplished mentor has saidt that Aguilar has been Ginebra’s anchor on defense this season. It showed in this game with how they collectively limited some of Meralco’s usual suspects.
Outside of Allein Maliksi and Chris Newsome — who had 24 and 13 points, respectively — guys like veteran Reynel Hugnatan and Baser Amer were almost a non-factor for the Bolts, combining for just 11 points.
Meralco, usually shooting 43.6-percent from the field, went just 39.7-percent in the disappointing defeat.
“He has the ability to dominate any team, Japeth does, on both sides of the floor. And I’m just really happy that he’s just so turned on defensively. He’s jumping and blocking and trying to get every shot available,” the 22-time champion mentor furthered.
“And I think that’s really, really cool. I love seeing that.”
Aguilar still had an impact on offense, though. He made six of his points in the second frame, including four in that 11-2 blitz that flipped a narrow three-point lead to a 48-36 cushion at the half, and began the one-sided affair.
“I felt also that we were missing him early. A number of times, he was open early on rolls and seals, and our guards weren’t seeing that. And then late in the second quarter, they started to pick it up and see him,” Cone said.
“I’m glad we were able to rest him through the fourth quarter and not bring him back, so he could be ready for Game Two.”
