Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone during Game 6 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals. PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines—Coach Tim Cone rued Barangay Ginebra’s offensive woes that contributed to its missed chances in the dying seconds of Wednesday’s 87-84 loss to the Bay Area Dragons at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“We had chances at the end of the game to hit, but we just didn’t knock down our open shots,” said Cone after the Gin Kings couldn’t get the job done in their first chance at winning the championship.
The Gin Kings came back from a 12-point third quarter deficit and led by seven in the fourth behind Justin Brownlee and Christian Standhardinger, only for their shooting struggles to take effect during the Dragons’ rally.
Ginebra also went empty-handed in its last four possessions, and Bay Area silenced the majority of the 22,000 fans to send the series to a deciding Game 7 set on Sunday at Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
Japeth Aguilar’s forced three in the final play of the game capped off that anemic windup for the Gin Kings.
Brownlee fired 37 points in a performance that could have been worthy of a series-clinching title—had the Best Import got plenty of offensive support.
Standhardinger produced 12 points after hitting key baskets early in the fourth that led to Ginebra’s 73-66 lead.
But Scottie Thompson and Stanley Pringle, whose late threes sealed the Game 5 win last Wednesday, each went 3-of-9 for eight points, LA Tenorio went scoreless after muffling all five shots and Jamie Malonzo could only score four for Ginebra.