Tim Cone had Barangay Ginebra using the very weapon on Phoenix Petroleum which the Gin Kings hope to ride to repeat as PBA Governors’ Cup champs.
“We overwhelmed them with our size,” Cone said after a 105-92 ripping of the Fuel Masters that gave the Kings a fifth straight win and allowed them to stay in the upper half of the elimination round bracket at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay on Wednesday night.
“It’s the strength that we have, which nobody else has,” Cone added after Ginebra rose to 5-1 and tied idle Meralco, as both are now within a win of advancing to the quarterfinals. “I guess if we will win this tournament, it will be because of our size.”
Ginebra came out of the halftime break a very different team, breaking free from a 53-50 game to eventually deal the Fuel Masters a seventh straight loss in a 2-7 card.
“San Miguel (Beer) has great size with June Mar (Fajardo),” Cone pointed out. “But we will have to take advantage of our size. It’s the same thing I had with Purefoods with (Marc) Pingris and Joe (Devance), only this time, we are really big.”
Japeth Aguilar had 19 points and 14 rebounds, and the 7-foot Greg Slaughter scattered 14 that went with 11 boards as the Kings humiliated the Fuel Masters in the rebounding battle, 76-47.
In the first game, TNT KaTropa routed Blackwater, 117-96, to snap the Elite’s franchise-best winning run at three games.
“I think they just caught us on a good day,” TNT coach Nash Racela said.
Blackwater is now 0-9 against TNT all-time, and the Texters made the Elite look so bad as they built leads of as many as 27 points.
TNT bottled up Blackwater’s inspiration, Henry Walker, no end and forced the NBA veteran into a sour shooting night. In dropping to 3-4, Blackwater lost for the first time in four games with Walker around.
Walker did finish with 33 points, but was 10-for-26 from the field in almost 43 minutes as the TNT perimeter defense forced him to a 1-for-6 clip from three-point range.
Meanwhile, with Sept. 1 declared a holiday, the PBA extended the deadline of Draft aspirants based abroad or with foreign lineage until the end of office hours on Monday, Sept. 4.