Christian Standhardinger made life without Japeth Aguilar easier to bear for Ginebra, as he submitted his best outing in the PBA Governors’ Cup playoffs to date in Game Two of the semis against NLEX, Friday.
The 32-year-old finished with 17 points on an 8-of-14 clip from the field. He also had 11 rebounds to help the Barangay to the 104-94 victory.
Ten of his points came in the second half, where the reigning champions broke the game wide open that saw them lead by as high as 18 four times. A bucket of his gave them an 86-68 advantage with 10:38 left in the final period.
“Just trying to fulfill whatever role is best for the team to give us the biggest chance to win,” said Standhardinger after the match at the MoA Arena.
Ever the team player, though, the 2019 Governors’ Cup Best Player of the Conference deflected the credit to the rest of the Gin Kings. He felt proud of the collective effort they showed to address the absence of their top big man due to a calf injury.
Photo by PBA Images
“I think we did a good job today, just sticking together and trying to somehow compensate for that, which is very hard to do because Japeth is an amazing player,” he said, as five players scored in twin digits in the victory.
“But, I’m happy. It was good to get the win today, but we have to move on, forget about it, and focus on the next game,” he furthered.
Standhardinger also didn’t take the limelight all to himself even with the commendable job he had in frustrating Road Warriors import Cam Clark.
It was a tough outing for the American cager, who unceremoniously exited the match after incurring his sixth and last foul with 6:30 left in the game. Three of his personal fouls actually came while up against the Fil-German bruiser.
Clark left the game with just 15 points to his name, easily his lowest scoring output in the conference. He averaged 26.3 markers prior.
“I’m just trying to play as hard as possible,” he said. “He’s a good player. He has a great mid-range shot, so it’s very hard to defend against him. We just tried our best as a team and I’m happy we were able to contain him a little bit today.
“We kept him under (his output) the last game and that was very important for us to win the game. Joe [Devance] did a great job. Justin [Brownlee] did a great job. They really did. They keep him down. And I think that’s a big factor for us winning the game.”
Game Three is on Sunday, and Ginebra definitely has the chance to close it out and return to the last dance. Should it do so, then Standhardinger will be making his first Finals trip with the league’s most popular team.
“I hope we can make it,” he said.
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