Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Barangay Ginebra San Miguel withstood a late rally by TNT to win, 91-84, in the last game of the elimination round in the 2016 Smart Bro PBA Philippine Cup Sunday night at Mall of Asia Arena.
The Kings saw their 18-point lead in the fourth quarter chopped down to four, 85-81, after back-to-back triples by Jayson Castro and Larry Fonacier with still 2:56 left. But the Kings recovered and went back to Greg Slaughter, who delivered in the crucial stretch.
Slaughter, the 7-foot center, dominated with 27 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks with the Tropang Texters’ frontline missing a healthy Moala Tautuaa. Tautuaa played for only 15 minutes due to back spasms.
The Kings, winners of three straight games, wound up the elimination round as the No.4 seed with a 7-4 record and will face their rivals Star Hotshots in the quarterfinals which begins on Friday on Christmas Day.
“Our reward for winning this game is we have to play Star and they handled us easily in the first game of the conference,” said Ginebra head coach Tim Cone, whose squad holds a twice-to-beat advantage against the lower-seeded Hotshots. “We were 1-3 at one point and we worked our way up to fourth.”
Japeth Aguilar addded 17 points and seven rebounds, but had a string of blunders late in the game that helped TNT’s rally.
Troy Rosario had 22 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Texters, who will take on the NLEX Road Warriors in the quarterfinals.