Japeth Aguilar of Ginebra (light) vs Marc Pingris and James Yap of San Mig Coffee (dark). Nuki Sabio/PBA
MANILA, Philippines — Ginebra equalized the best-of-seven series against San Mig Coffee at 1-1 with a convincing 93-64 victory Friday night in the 2014 PLDT MyDSL PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Kings took it strong to the hoop early and were rewarded with a commanding 21 point lead just a minute into the third period, and enjoyed control the rest of the way.
“We had a good start and we had good defense today,” said head coach Ato Agustin.”We were able to limit their offense and we were aggressive.”
Ginebra’s crafty guards ran the show and got a huge boost from its big men, which made them virtually unstoppable unlike in game 1.
Emman Monfort, LA Tenorio, Jayjay Helterband and Greg Slaughter took turns doing the damage in the second quarter, slicing through San Mig’s defense repeatedly for a 48-32 half-time lead.
Slaughter topscored the Kings with 21 points and accounted for 12 of their 55 rebounds, Helterband added 11 points while Tenorio and Billy Mamaril had 10 each.
Tenorio also got eight assists as the Kings registered 25 in total.
The Mixers, who drew first blood last Tuesday with an 85-83 triumph, came alive for a bit on efforts from PJ Simon midway the payoff period but never got nearer than 12 points.
Simon finished with 16 points for the Mixers, who got badly beaten in the rebounding and assists department as they just managed 23 boards and 14 dimes.
Marc Pingris and James Yap added 15 and 14 points, respectively, mostly in the third period but San Mig Coffee only produced 11 in the fourth.
Game 3 is on Sunday with Ginebra, the team with the best record in the eliminations, getting a crack at the lead for the first time in the series.