ANTIPOLO – With its star trio leading the way, Barangay Ginebra couldn’t seem to do no wrong towards routing San Miguel, 121-103, to move closer to a PBA Governors’ Cup Finals return, Sunday night at the Ynares Center here.
Justin Brownlee and Christian Standhardinger unloaded 32 points apiece, while Scottie Thompson tallied a triple-double of 21-11-11 as they powered the Kings in seizing a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 series.
The troika spearheaded the reigning champs” 18-1 start into the game, setting the tone for the wire-to-wire win that left head coach Tim Cone in awe.
“I’m totally shocked by this game in terms of how our guys played in a Game 2 like that. Really shocked and obviously really pleased,” he said.
Brownlee also collected 10 rebounds, seven assists, and two steals while BPC race leader Standhardinger had eight and seven to his name. Thompson, on the other hand, added three steals and two blocks for a full line.
Jamie Malonzo was the only other double-digit scorer for the crowd darlings with 11 points, on top of seven boards, three dimes, and four steals.
Game 3 is on Wednesday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum, with the chance to finish it off and formalize the Finals return there for Ginebra to take.
Cone, though, said that it won’t be easy. “It’s nearly impossible to beat them three straight times,” said the winner of 25 titles.
“I mean, we’re gonna try and do the impossible on Wednesday. The good news is, we’ve got a day off to kind of recover a little bit before we re-focus on Tuesday to get back to our game-planning,” he added.
Cam Clark and CJ Perez finished with 23 and 20 points, respectively, to lead San Miguel in the crushing defeat that put the club on the verge of being swept in a best-of-5 series for the first time ever.
The Beermen actually showed some spirit in the third when they got to within eight, 76-68, only to allow the Kings to respond with a 12-0 run.
The Scores:
Ginebra 121 – Standhardinger 32, Brownlee 32, Thompson 21, Malonzo 11, Gray 9, Pringle 7, Pinto 5, Mariano 4, Pessumal 0, Onwubere 0.
San Miguel 103 – Clark 23, Perez 20, Ross 19, Tautuaa 12, Lassiter 8, Bulanadi 5, Herndon 5, Cruz 5, Enciso 3, Brondial 2, Faundo 1, Manuel 0.
Quarters: 31-24, 63-45, 94-72, 121-103
—
The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
