Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone brushed their Game 1 win aside as “one of those nights” and will spend the one-day break planning for a fightback by San Miguel Beer.
Using a strong start and a sustained effort the rest of the way, the Gin Kings blew the defending champion Beermen off the floor and scored a 127-99 victory in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup title series opener on Friday, belying pre-tournament talks about the best-of-seven battle being close.
And that’s what worries Cone the most.
“We stirred the beehive and they (Beermen) will stick it to us in Game 2,” said Cone, who got 42 points from import Justin Brownlee and twin digits from four locals in the unexpected rout.
“It was one of those nights when we had it and they didn’t,” Cone went on. “We didn’t win the series yet, but we got Game 1 and that’s important. We are expecting a real forceful game from them in Game 2.”
The Kings dropped 35 points in the first quarter—with Brownlee shooting 18—to lead by 15 at the start of the second.
They opened the second half with a 19-point lead that the Beermen spent the rest of the last two quarters trying to overhaul.
San Miguel didn’t even come close to doing that as Ginebra led by as much as 39 using its shock troopers.
The Gin Kings will go for a 2-0 lead at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, also at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Conference awards
Meanwhile, SMB’s 6-foot-10 ace June Mar Fajardo is set to win a record seventh Best Player of the Conference award before Game 4 on Friday next week.
Fajardo has a 39.12 Statistical Points average after the semifinals, more than three SPs ahead of GlobalPort’s Stanley Pringle (36.08).
In the Best Import race, Brownlee (54.46) and San Miguel counterpart Renaldo Balkman (51.0) finished 1-2. Votes from the players and covering media will decide the winner.
NCAA basketball
In the NCAA Season 94 men’s basketball, Letran trounced Jose Rizal University, 74-58, at Filoil Flying V Centre for its second straight win.