Justin Brownlee is hoping for another crack at Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and TNT after falling short in the PBA Season 49 Governors Cup Finals.
The three-time Best Import and his Ginebra fell short in a 95-85 loss in Game 6 on Friday night, helplessly watching the Tropang Giga bask in glory after successfully defending the throne they won back in 2023 – against them, too.
“Man, I hope so. I don’t know. We definitely would love to get back to the Finals, and love to have a shot again at them,” he told reporters moments after emerging from the Barangay’s dugout at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
Brownlee has lost in the Finals twice now and both of those came at the hands of Hollis-Jefferson and TNT. He didn’t conceal that the recent result hurts.
“Good fight from our guys. I’m proud of the team, definitely looking at how far we have come. But it just hurts a little bit, you know, coming up short,” he said.
It actually appeared that the series was headed to a Game 7 on Sunday when Ginebra went hot in the third quarter and even held a 68-57 lead.
But the Tropa came back with a strong response early in the fourth quarter. Hollis-Jefferson then took over in crunch time by scoring half of their telling 8-0 run to take control of the game, 91-85, with 1:20 remaining.
Roger Pogoy finally struck the dagger with less than a minute left to play and flashbacks of the 2023 finale played on the Barangay side.
That series also ended in six games, with the clincher going down the wire as well, 97-93.
Hollis-Jefferson had an all-around effort in that title-sealing win last year and that was the same this time. The two-time Best Import flirted with a triple-double as he finished with 31 points, 16 rebounds, and eight assists, plus two steals.
Brownlee could only tip his hat to the former NBA veteran, even though he’s been the reason why Brownlee cannot get PBA title no. 7 yet – which would see him surpass Sean Chambers for most league championships by an import.
“Man, he’s good. He’s good. I gotta give him credit, you know, he’s good and, you know, he fit that team very well and he definitely elevated them. They played better with them,” said the 36-year-old forward.
“You know, I gotta admit: they had some great imports in the past – Terrence Jones, Glen Rice were there before. They had some really good imports. But the way they played with RHJ, they’ve gotten more special with him,” he added.
But while Hollis-Jefferson had his way, the same can’t be said about JB. He saw himself held to only 16 points on 21 shots in Game 6 – proof of how much he struggled this whole series due to the opposing defense doubling down on him.
“I guess just their team defense. I gotta admit it was tough,” he said. “They had a really good game plan, they executed very well, you know, by playing me a certain way. So you just gotta give a lot of credit to them.”
“I would say for myself too, I think I was a little off my game normally. Even I felt like I got some shots that I could normally make, but I didn’t connect.
“So it was definitely a mixture of uh me not being able to get into a rhythm and their defense, not allowing me to get in that rhythm,” he added.
It’s back to the drawing board again for Ginebra, but the work won’t stop for Brownlee and some of his Ginebra teammates.
They are preparing to take on Gilas duties again for the second window of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers.
But they may take some time to process what happened in the Finals before jumping back into action for the national team, which is understandable.
“Just try to get over it first, you know,” he said. “It’s a tough loss for us. Like I said, we fought hard. Definitely, still got a responsibility to go out there [and] fight for the country. And we got two tough opponents. New Zealand and Hong Kong.”
