Ginebra San Miguel kept its title retention bid alive by disarming the twice-to-beat advantage of TNT, 104-92, in the 2021-22 PBA Governors’ Cup quarterfinals Wednesday evening at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
Justin Brownlee, Scottie Thompson, and Japeth Aguilar joined forces in the telling 10-2 run to expand a narrow two-point lead to 100-90 with 1:21 left, enough to close the door on the Tropang Giga after rallying from 19 down.
The celebrated trio accounted for 23 of the reigning champions’ last 25 points. The squad scored 33 points all in all in the final period.
Coach Tim Cone, however, insisted that there’s no reason to celebrate as his Gin Kings have only extended the series to a do-or-die on Saturday at 4 p.m.
“I don’t want to make too big of a deal about this game. It’s just one game. All we did was even out the odds. They had the overwhelmingly big odds coming into this series, and now we’ve kind of halved those odds,” he said.
Brownlee finished with a game-high 38 points on 62-percent shooting from the field and 12 rebounds, together with three blocks.
Thompson nearly had another triple-double with 23 points, 15 rebounds, and eight assists. Aguilar made 21 markers and seven boards.
But the Barangay received solid contributions as well from guys like Christian Standhardinger and Nards Pinto. Both finished with six points but all those were crucial ones in helping keep the opposition at bay.
Pinto himself proved his worth on defense as well, taking turns with Thompson in making life difficult for TNT star Mikey Williams. The BPC candidate had 19 points, still, but he needed 18 shots to finish with such.
“He had a couple of really big threes from the corner when they were making their run and started to tie the ballgame up. He came out, hit some big threes. He helped on defending Williams as well,” Cone lauded.
The Tropang Giga were led by the 22 points and 19 rebounds of Aaron Fuller in the defeat that foiled their bid of reaching the semis outright with a win.
Troy Rosario made 20 points, while Kelly Williams and Roger Pogoy added 12 markers apiece for TNT, who lost to Ginebra for the first time since Game Five of the 2020 Philippine Cup Finals in Clark, Pampanga.
The Scores:
Ginebra 104 – Brownlee 38, Thompson 23, J. Aguilar 21, Tenorio 7, Standhardinger 6, Pinto 6, Chan 3, Onwubere 0, Devance 0, Caperal 0
TNT 92 – Fuller 22, Rosario 20, M.Williams 19, Pogoy 12, K.Williams 12, Castro 5, Montalbo 0, Erram 0, Reyes 0, Khobuntin 0, Ganuelas-Rosser 0
Quarterscores: 28-14, 50-45, 71-70, 104-92
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