Barangay Ginebra San Miguel head coach Tim Cone knew what version of the San Miguel Beermen they were about to face on Sunday night.
The decorated bench strategist expected that his Gin Kings would taste the wrath of the reigning four-time PBA Philippine Cup champions, as they were coming off an ego-crushing, 118-124 loss to the Columbian Dyip.
But as aware as he had been, Cone and Ginebra still failed to make a counter attack.
The crowd darlings bowed to their arch-nemesss, 91-99, no thanks to the Beermen’s balanced attack led by forward Christian Standhardinger and the end-game guts best exemplified by the cold-blooded Marcio Lassiter.
“We knew that they were going to come out with great force after their loss, and we need to match that. And we didn’t, so I’m very, very disappointed with our effort,” rued Cone, whose wards were down by 23 late in the third.
“We weren’t able to do anything we needed to do and they were getting everything they wanted to. We should have better prepared,” added the two-time Grand Slam coach.
“That’s on me.”
The Gin Kings still managed to give out a major scare. The quartet of Japeth Aguilar, Scottie Thompson, Teytey Teodoro, and LA Tenorio joined hands and put their side to within striking distance, 89-94, with 1:28 remaining in the final frame.
But their fire was quickly extinguished just 16 seconds later, as Lassiter made a booming triple from the corner off a Von Pessumal dime to widen San Miguel’s lead to 97-89. That trey closed the door on the Barangay.
“It was good to see us come back like that, but they pretty much dominated the whole game. So we like the way we came back,” Cone lamented.
“But we didn’t like the way we played overall.”
