RANGED against an also-ran Terrafirma side, Ginebra still had to walk the tightrope to get the job done last Wednesday night.
“Way too many tough moments out there,” Kings coach Tim Cone said after his charges eked out a 109-104 decision over the Dyip and clinched a top four slot that is rewarded with a twice-to-beat edge in the quarterfinals of the PBA Governors’ Cup. “They (Dyip) shot the ball extremely well, they all stepped up.”
“We just had to really reach deep and find a way,” he added.
Naturalized Filipino player Justin Brownlee scattered a game-high 38 points, to go with three rebounds and six assists for Ginebra, while Christian Standhardinger also shone with 23 markers, 12 boards, and six dimes.
Jamie Malonzo added 16 and 13, while reigning MVP Scottie Thompson had 13 points, five caroms, and three feeds as the Kings scored a big follow up to a 120-101 rout of Converge last Sunday and rose to 8-2 for solo second.
Terrafirma failed to strike hard in its final game of the season and lost its seventh outing in a row, counting a 115-121 overtime defeat to Magnolia last Saturday for a 2-9 slate.
Cone said it was a duel the Kings could not afford to lose.
“I didn’t want to lose the game. This was crucial for us, we gotta take the top four. We didn’t want to leave that to playing against TNT later on,” Cone said. “We’re going to go with our core and let them play and try to win the game.”
Ginebra nearly paid a dear price for playing only seven players in the tiff, according to Cone.
“It kind of backfired on us, the guys played a little tired. I was kicking myself throughout the game, saying I should have played the bench more… we’re playing tired,” he said.
“But that’s my style… When we have a big game, we circle the wagons and make sure we get the guys out there that we want to play.”
Import Jordan Williams paced the Dyip with 35 points and 10 rebounds, while Juami Tiongson and Eric Camson had 18 and 11, respectively.
