Photo by Tristan Rafael Tamayo
BARANGAY Ginebra needed to dig deep early, and after catching up with Star at the end of the third, made it look like the Hotshots didn’t belong in the same league.
The Gin Kings rode out a furious Star start Sunday night and then left the Hotshots eating their dust in the second half, scoring a 116-103 victory to claim a piece of second place in the PBA Governors’ Cup eliminations before a boisterous crowd of close to 17,000 at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Import Justin Brownlee kept the Kings in the game in the face of Star’s swashbuckling start, before the rest of his back-up cast took turns in hurting the Hotshots in the final two periods that had Ginebra rising to 6-2 overall and catching surprising Mahindra.
The loss was the fourth straight for Star, which blew a 17-point lead in the second quarter and was never in it in the fourth, trailing by as many as 19 to dramatize how the tide changed when winning time came.
Ginebra sealed its playoff appearance with the win while endangering the Hotshots’ chances.
“We were a little bit shell-shocked at how they played us early,” Ginebra coach Tim Cone said. “But after the shock wore off, after we righted the ship, the game got a lot easier for us. I was tearing my hair out in the first half.”
Earlier, LaDontae Henton scored 33 points and grabbed eight rebounds in three quarters to highlight Alaska’s spilling of undermanned Blackwater, 107-87, to stay in the running for a playoff berth.
The Aces peeled away in the first period and built leads of as large as 30 to bounce back from a sorry loss to San Miguel Beer just a couple of nights back and rise to 3-5.
It was the sixth straight loss in a 1-7 card for the Elite, who are not throwing in the towel just yet with a new import to arrive in place of the injured Eric Dawson.
Brownlee, Ginebra’s second choice for an import after Paul Harris got injured, finished with 38 points, 23 of them coming in the first half.
Meanwhile, San Miguel Beer enlisted the services of former Barako Bull reinforcement Michael Singletary to take the place of the injured Arizona Reid starting with the Beermen’s crucial clash with Meralco on Wednesday.
The scores:
First Game
ALASKA 107—Henton 33, Racal 12, Exciminiano 11, Banchero 8, Baclao 7, Abueva 7, Thoss 6, Jazul 5, Casio 4, Dela Rosa 4, Mendoza 4, Dela Cruz 4, Hontiveros 2, Magat 0, Menk 0.
BLACKWATER 87—Dela Cruz 23, Lastimosa 18, Gamalinda 10, Melano 10, Miranda 6, Reyes 5, Sena 4, Tiongson 3, Pascual 2, Sumang 2, Qahwash 2, Golla 2.
Quarters: 25-20, 54-36, 82-54, 107-87
Second Game
GINEBRA 116—Brownlee 38, Aguilar 21, Mercado 14, Tenorio 13, Cruz 8, Caguioa 8, Thompson 6, Marcelo 4, Mariano 2, Devance 2, Helterbrand 0.
STAR 103—Wright 31, Simon 22, Pingris 13, Garcia 10, Barroca 9, Yap 9, Melton 5, Sangalang 2, Maliksi 2, Reavis 0, Pascual 0.
Quarters: 21-33, 50-58, 78-76, 116-103