Working extra hard against an enemy that has made turns in the PBA Governors’ Cup, Barangay Ginebra on Friday night got the perfect reward for its effort and got ready for a bigger battle that’s just around the corner.
“It was important to get this win because we turn around and play San Miguel Beer,” Ginebra coach Tim Cone said, minutes after rallying for a 98-81 decision of Blackwater at Mall of Asia Arena. “The final score doesn’t give justice to the difficulty of this game.”
Ginebra trailed early and needed one big spurt in the fourth period to put the Elite away and extend the tournament’s longest winning streak to seven after opening up with a loss and remain at No. 1.
“You don’t want to play San Miguel coming off a loss, you need to have high energy coming into that game to have a chance,” Cone went on, referring to their 6:45 p.m. clash with the powerhouse Beermen on Sunday, which could ultimately mean No. 1 seeding for his Kings.
Blackwater dropped to 4-5, losing for just the second time in six games since Henry Walker arrived. The Elite would need to sweep their remaining two games to advance to the quarterfinals outright.
Earlier, Alaska pulled off a second straight win Friday night, downing GlobalPort, 101-88, as the Aces stayed in the running for a playoff berth.
With the franchise-worst 14-game losing streak now behind him and needing his team to win its last three games to advance scot-free, Aces coach Alex Compton has gone on to borrow a cliché and rewrite it a bit.
“When it rains, it pours and when it rained, it rained on us pretty bad,” Compton said
LaDontae Henton scored 36 points and grabbed 21 rebounds, and Calvin Abueva scored all of his 12 points in the fourth period as the Aces wriggled out of a 67-all tie after three quarters to rise to 2-6.