Brownlee sinks Batang Pier

It was an ugly win for coach Tim Cone but Justin Brownlee delivered it in majestic fashion as he justified his status as the reigning Best Import of the 2019 Commissioner’s Cup for Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Saturday.

Brownlee outscored NorthPort, 6-2, down the stretch then added a steal as the Gin Kings downed the hitherto unbeaten Batang Pier, 73-70, to nail a second straight win after an opening overtime loss to the Blackwater Elite.

A triple from the side that capped Brownlee’s game-high 32-point performance with a minute and 24 seconds left decided what turned out to be an exciting contest that ended with the Batang Pier missing successive three 3-point attempts in the dying seconds.

While Cone was unhappy with the scrambling victory, he was lucky NorthPort ace Stanley Pringle scored just seven points while playing limited time in his second game from a foot injury. Pringle led all NorthPort scorers with 22 when the Batang Pier whipped the TNT KaTropa, 110-86, last Wednesday.

With five players also hitting in double figures, the Batang Pier had outplayed the KaTropa in a game where they limited former Houston Rockets mainstay Terrence Jones to only 17 points after the TNT import had fired 41 and 43 in his first two games against NLEX and Alaska, respectively.

The loss dropped NorthPort into a tie at 3-1 with Blackwater, whose own 3-0 run came to an end courtesy of Phoenix Pulse, 103-98, last Friday. Phoenix was gunning for No. 2 against TNT at press time after the Blackwater-Rain or Shine tussle earlier.

Meanwhile, Columbian Dyip finally broke into the win column in four games with a 120-105 rout of NLEX, which took a fourth straight loss.

CJ Perez, the top rookie draft pick, fired a career-high 39 points and Kyle Barone added 31 in his last game for Columbian, which will field Lester Prosper against Magnolia on June 4.

The Hotshots finally get going along with San Miguel Beermen this Wednesday.