GINEBRA coach Tim Cone pulled an ace off his sleeves in Game 5 of the Big Dance against Bay Area — prized guard Stanley Pringle, whom he called a “secret weapon” that left their foes flabbergasted.
“Well, he’s not 100 percent yet, as everyone can tell. He’s still working his way back, but his 90 percent is better than most guys in the league so we’re trying to monitor his minutes, we bring him off the bench,” Cone said.
“We bring him off the bench so that we can monitor his minutes. That adds so much depth to our team — being able to bring a guy like Stanley out, and to relieve an LA (Tenorio) or a Scottie (Thompson),” he added.
Pringle, a prized Fil-Am guard, scattered a conference-best 20 points spiked by six three-pointers, to go with four rebounds and eight assists in the Kings’ pivotal 101-91 victory over the Dragons last Sunday night in the resumption of the best-of-7 battle for the PBA Commissioner’s Cup crown.
His two straight three-pointers doused cold water on Bay Area’s last-ditch fightback in the endgame.
Although he has yet to fully recover from a knee injury, Cone insisted Pringle remains as one of Ginebra’s best players.
“We can go to him in big moments, like we did today. He just adds so much depth, even though he’s not 100 percent at this point,” Cone said.
“He’s definitely a weapon out there, and he’s a weapon that really, Bay Area has not seen, really because he hasn’t been playing heavy, heavy minutes.”
With Pringle expected to play a big role anew, Ginebra will try to finish off Bay Area in Game 6 tomorrow at the Smart Araneta Coliseum and rule the same mid-season tourney for the first time since 2018.
A deciding seventh game for all the marbles, if necessary, will be played on Friday at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
The 6-foot-1 Pringle, a one-time Best Player of the Conference, said he is just elated to play in the finals anew.
“It feels good to be back playing at this stage. This is all I asked for, playing again. When I had this injury, this was my third surgery on this knee, at first, I didn’t really think that I could get to this point. But everything is looking good right now,” he said.
“I’m trying to work hard to recover faster. I’m not a hundred percent but definitely, way better when the conference started. Everything is looking good right now.”
