GINEBRA guard Maverick Ahanmisi received an emergency pass from teammate Stephen Holt with the shot clock ticking like a time bomb against defending champion TNT last Sunday night.
Gun-shy at times, Ahanmisi opted to go for it this time, letting the ball fly from 27 feet over the outstretched arm of Tropang Giga Roger Pogoy.
The ball found the bottom of the net with 2:33 remaining, leaving the 6-foot-2 Ahanmisi clapping his hands in jubilation, to the delight of the predominantly mammoth Kings crowd.
For Ginebra coach Tim Cone, his charges simply, and finally, got their A-Game going in the last two matches, including a 106-92 victory in Game 4 of their best-of-7 finals duel for the PBA Governors’ Cup crown.
“This is the finals. It’s going to be tough to go offensively always in the finals. Everybody wants to win so badly that it’s never just about making shots,” Cone said. “It’s always about how many guys are going to defend and rebound and hustle and that’s what we’ve been able to do these last two games.
“In terms of our offense, we just kept making big shots when we needed to. We’ve been doing that pretty much all conference long,” he added.
In front of 16,783 fans—the largest since 54,589 trooped to the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan for Game 7 of last year’s mid-season Commissioner’s Cup Big Dance that pitted the Kings against foreign guest team Bay Area Dragons – Cone’s squad pulled through with the biggest hits to score a fitting follow up to an 85-73 triumph in the third tiff last Friday and forge a 2-2 standoff in the race-to-4 title series.
“It seems like when the team starts to make a run at us, somebody hits a big shot. Stephen (Holt) was the one making those big shots, Maverick hit that big four, Justin had one,” Cone said. “We’ve been fortunate that we’ve been hitting the big shots when it counts.”
The 6-foot-5 Brownlee dazzled with 34 points on two four-pointers and three triples while Holt, Ahanmisi, and Japeth Aguilar had 18 markers each for Ginebra.
Former MVP Scottie Thompson also added 12 for the Kings, who will eye a third straight win and a 3-2 edge in Game 5 tomorrow at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Cone deflected their stunning shellacking of the Tropang Giga to Brownlee’s all-game exploits.
“Justin’s always usually is a very good starter, especially in big games. He knows how important he is to set the tempo and give confidence to his teammates,” he said of his Gilas Pilipinas naturalized star.
“He knows when we get the lead, it gives them (Ginebra players) the confidence, and in the last few games, he hasn’t had a good start. I know it’s bothering him, but we ran some sets for him outside the triangle early to try to get him a little bit.”
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson totaled 28 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and two steals while Calvin Oftana scored 26 for TNT which also got 15 markers from Rey Nambatac.
Brownlee and Aguilar lost the best import and Best Player of the Conference awards to Hollis-Jefferson and reigning eight-time MVP June Mar Fajardo of San Miguel Beer, respectively.
But a championship certainly will be much, much sweeter.
