It boiled down to a battle between super imports, but Chris McCullough stood tall as he towed TNT past Ginebra, 98-90, to send the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals to a Game 7, Sunday night at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
The one-time league champion poured a career-high 53 points alongside 22 rebounds, going all out from start to finish to ensure that his Tropang 5G will live to fight another day–and keep their title defense bid very much alive.
‘C-Mac’ produced 16 of his points in the payoff period, none bigger than the cold-blooded four-pointer to push their lead to 94-86 with 1:52 left to play, causing major damage to the Kings’ hopes of mounting a comeback.
(C) PBA Images
Jordan Heading went on to settle the final count with a perfect trip to the foul line with 15.2 seconds left, ultimately enabling themselves to pull through after losing a 10-point lead–and overcome another massive Justin Brownlee outing.
The four-time Best Import of the Conference, just like in Game 5, carried the crowd darlings with 52 points and five rebounds for back-to-back 50-point outings, but his counterpart simply had more–and better support–in the end.
“I guess C-Mac got tired of Justin eating his lunch,” offered head coach Chot Reyes of his import’s stupendous play witnessed by 22,731 fans.
“Another 50-piece by Justin, but C-Mac was able to stay in step with him. And I think that’s basically the key,” he added.
Heading finished with 19 points and nine assists as his pick-and-roll sets with McCullough proved effective, while Roger Pogoy added 13 markers.
(C) PBA Images
Meanwhile, no local from the Barangay scored in double figures, with Troy Rosario the closest with nine points alongside 15 rebounds.
Former league MVP Scottie Thompson and newly minted Commissioner’s Cup BPC RJ Abarrientos combined for nine points as they shot just 2-of-18 together, with the latter going 1-of-12 in the 40 minutes he played.
Despite their poor play, they still managed to take the 80-78 lead early in the fourth behind a 13-3 run. But then came McCullough, who buried two crucial triples before knocking down the aforementioned 27-footer to regain control.
“In our board, we put ‘96 minutes’ encircled in a heart. We said let’s play the best 96 minutes of our lives–Game 6 and Game 7. And now, we’ve done the first half of that,” the only seven-time PBA Coach of the Year said.
Game 7 is on Wednesday at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, with TNT hoping to repeat while Ginebra is looking to end a lengthy title drought.
The Scores:
TNT 98 – McCullough 53, Heading 19, Pogoy 13, Castro 3, Nambatac 3, Khobuntin 3, Galinato 2, Williams 2, Aurin 0.
Ginebra 90 – Brownlee 52, Rosario 9, J. Aguilar 8, Abarrientos 6, Holt 5, Pinto 5, Thompson 3, Abis 2, Gray 0, Cu 0.
Quarterscores: 17-16, 45-43, 75-67, 98-90.
