Jamie Malonzo played his best game since returning as Ginebra moved one win away from sweeping NorthPort following a dominant 127-100 victory in Game 3 of their PBA Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup semifinals Sunday night.
Showing that he’s regaining his form from a calf injury, the 28-year-old fired 25 points — spiked by a 4-of-5 clip from three — and eight rebounds as he led the Kings’ second-quarter breakaway to once again crush the Batang Pier.
He fired 16 in the said period alone, almost matching the 19 of his ex-team while powering their 34-point explosion to build a 64-40 lead at the half.
The match would never be in doubt since, with Malonzo serving up highlight-worthy plays — including a two-handed alley-oop jam off an RJ Abarrientos lob — much to the delight of their fans inside the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“Coach said 85-percent. So hopefully somewhere around there, trying to get to 90 soon, just keep trying to use these games to get as close as I can to get back to my normal self,” said Malonzo, who earned Player of the Game honors.
Five more players finished in double figures in the rout, with Justin Brownlee coming through with 22 points on top of eight rebounds and eight assists.
Japeth Aguilar made 17 points and seven rebounds. Scottie Thompon tallied 15 points, three rebounds, and six assists, while Abarrientos netted a double-double of 10 points and 10 assists as he and Malonzo led the bench mob.
Troy Rosario chipped in 10 points and five rebounds in the victory that saw all but two players of Coach Tim Cone contribute at least two points.
“We’ve been talking a lot about discipline, a lot about process, and those are kind of our keywords right now in getting ourselves ready for each game,” Cone said. “This team has always been a good team about moving on.
“It can be hard to move on from wins because you kind of want to live in those wins, but you get to move on from them and keep, it’s a cliche, I know it, but you just gotta keep taking each game at a time,” he added.
The Barangay can finish off the Batang Pier in Game 4 on Wednesday, March 5, still at the Big Dome and sweep their way into the Finals.
(C) PBA Images
Kadeem Jack, meanwhile, once again carried much of the load offensively for the Batang Pier with 32 points in yet another blowout loss — the team is losing to Ginebra by an average margin of 20.3 points in this series.
Arvin Tolentino had 15 points on 14 attempts while Paolo Taha added 11 points for NorthPort, who trailed by as many as 38 points in the defeat.
The Scores:
Ginebra 127 – Malonzo 25, Brownlee 22, J.Aguilar 17, Thompson 15, Abarrientos 10, Rosario 10, Ahanmisi 6, Holt 5, Pessumal 4, Gray 4, R.Aguilar 3, Adamos 2, Mariano 2, Tenorio 2, Cu 0, Pinto 0.
NorthPort 100 – Jack 32, Tolentino 15, Taha 11, Yu 6, Miranda 6, Bulanadi 6, Munzon 5, Cuntapay 5, Flores 4, Nelle 3, Navarro 3, Tratter 2, Onwubere 2.
Quarterscores: 30-21, 64-40, 99-68, 127-100.
