Ginebra forges ‘50-50’ Game 7

Star’s Marc Pingris, Allein Maliksi, Ian Sangalang and Jio Jalalon gang up on Ginebra’s Sol Mercado in Game 6 of their semifinal series last night. —AUGUST DELA CRUZ

So many great athletes and equally great coaches—in the PBA or anywhere else in the world—have described Game 7 as the “two best words in sports.”

Minutes after steering Barangay Ginebra to a 91-67 decision of Star to forge a decider in their Philippine Cup Final Four playoffs on Sunday night at Smart Araneta Coliseum, coach Tim Cone repeated that phrase but added something that could be the more practical definition: “It’s a 50-50 game.”

The Gin Kings, bouncing back from a listless start, pulverized the Hotshots in the second half to win pulling away and set the tables up for a Game 7 not too many envisioned would happen considering the diversity in forms both teams came in at the start of the series.

Cone, though, disagrees.

“This is the way it’s meant to be, I guess,” Cone went on after getting five players in twin digits. “We’re supposed to play a Game 7, and it’s a 50-50 game. Whoever comes out with a better night has a good chance. That’s what I think about a Game 7.”

The multititled coach paid tribute to his wards for coming out with “great energy” to win this game, but also admitted that it could tell on them in the 7 p.m. game Tuesday.

“This (game) took a lot of energy for us to win,” he said. “We only have so much gas in the tank and we need to figure out if we still have enough left. Like in Game 5 (an 80-89 loss), we had zero gas in the tank.”