PBA: Ginebra books semis seat, ousts Rain or Shine

Japeth Aguilar leads Ginebra. PBA IMAGES

MANILA, Philippines—Top seed Barangay Ginebra secured its spot in the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals after grinding out an 81-73 win over no. 8 Rain or Shine Friday at Angeles University Foundation.

It was a virtual dogfight in the fourth quarter with both teams jawing at each other for much of the period until Stanley Pringle gave the Gin Kings a bit of a reprieve with two consecutive buckets to give his team a 76-71 lead with 2:12 to play.

Aljon Mariano and LA Tenorio then exchanged on a couple of jumpers to complete Ginebra’s 9-0 run for a 10-point, 81-71, lead with 55 seconds left.

“We came to this game expecting to grind it out,” said Ginebra head coach Tim Cone. “Rain or Shine is a tough grind out team and one of the things we talked about is we should play old style Ginebra basketball.”

“We reverted back to the 90s. Play as physical as you can and don’t back down from anybody.”

Japeth Aguilar led the Gin Kings’ offense with 23 points, on 11-of-15 shooting, and 11 rebounds while Aljon Mariano and Prince Caperal had 11 points apiece.

Mark Borboran had 13 points to lead the Elasto Painters with Javee Mocon and Rey Nambatac pitching in 12 and 10 points, respectively.