PBA IMAGES
Justin Brownlee dazzled anew and top seed Barangay Ginebra eliminated TNT from contention with a 112-93 rout to end the elimination round of the 2018 PBA Governors’ Cup Sunday night at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Brownlee had 31 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists for the Gin Kings, who will face the eighth-seeded NLEX Road Warriors in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
“We wanna make sure we’re going into the playoffs in full speed. That was the goal today,” said Ginebra head coach Tim Cone, whose squad will head into the playoffs with a 9-2 card. “We want to be prepared going into the playoffs and make sure there’s no slippage and we played a lot better than we thought we would.”
Greg Slaughter also gave the KaTropa fits with 25 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 13-of-15 from the free throw line in 26 minutes while Scottie Thompson collected 11 points, eight rebounds and four assists off the bench.
TNT hung around until the midway mark of the fourth quarter when Ginebra went on a 10-0 run capped by a triple by Kevin Ferrer to take a 103-83 spread with 4:51 remaining.
KaTropa import Marqus Blakely posted 23 points and 15 rebounds in his first game against Cone, who was his former coach at Purefoods when the franchise completed a Grand Slam in 2014.
Blakely and Cone met at center court as the final buzzer sounded and share a few words.
“I had so many, many, many fond memories of Marqus and ow he turned around our program at that time. He came in and played with such heart and intensity. He was defensive-minded and that kind of turned everybody that way,” Cone recalled.