It was unfortunate that Justin Brownlee couldn’t share much about his highly-anticipated match-up with Renaldo Balkman on Sunday night, as he and the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel lost to the San Miguel Beermen in extra time, 97-104.
Sunday night was the first time that Brownlee and Balkman battled each other. The two had spent months together in the ASEAN Basketball League, where they steered San Miguel Alab Pilipinas to the championship.
“[It was] Pretty fun,” said Brownlee, who led the Gin Kings with 18 points on 7-of-27 shooting and 14 rebounds. “But, of course, being on the losing end… I knew he was going to be pretty competitive, relentless.
“Kept attacking us, and just kept going.”
The night had been nothing but tough for Brownlee and the Barangay, as they lost their third straight. All in all, Ginebra are in a tough spot in the 2018 Commissioner’s Cup — they’re now second to the last with a 1-5 record.
“Tonight was definitely a tough loss,” lamented Brownlee, who has yet to win since returning to Ginebra this Friday.
Despite this, Brownlee is keeping his head up high despite being their dangerous position. Judging from the way they played against the now-streaking defending champions, the 6-foot-5 scorer saw lots of positives that will only help them.
“A tough loss, but I definitely think we could build off of it,” said Brownlee. “We just have to stay at it and you know, hopefully, in these next upcoming games we can keep improving on what we got out tonight and keep improving on it.”
With that, Brownlee remains optimistic of their playoff chances.
“We’re still confident,” said the 30-year-old American.
“You know, of course, nobody wants to be one-and-five but our hands are going to stay up and we’re going to keep our comfort zones and just fight, trying to just to find out.”
