Mga laro bukas:
(Ninoy Aquino Stadium)
5 p.m. – Meralco vs NorthPort
7:30 p.m. – Converge vs Rain or Shine
TINAMBAKAN ng Barangay Ginebra ang Blackwater, 86-63, upang ipagdiwang ang pagbabalik ni Jamie Malonzo sa PBA Commissioner’s Cup kagabi sa Ynares Center sa Antipolo.
Sa kanyang unang laro matapos ang halos siyam na buwan at 44 larong pagliban dahil sa calf injury, si Malonzo ay gumawa ng 8 points mula sa bench at nagdagdag ng 3 rebounds sa loob lamang halos 11 minutong paglalaro.
Hindi na kinailangan ang malaking produksiyon mula kay Malonzo ng Gin Kings na bumawi mula sa 116-119 pagkatalo sa NorthPort noong nakaraang Miyerkoles at umangat sa 6-3, sa pangunguna nina Justin Brownlee, RJ Abarrientos, Japeth Aguilar at ex-Bossing Troy Rosario.
Sa kabila nito, halatang masaya si Ginebra coach Tim Cone sa tulong ni Malonzo sa 27-13 third quarter ng kanyang tropa na nagsindi sa pag-abante nito sa 66-45 at pagkatapos ay hanggang sa 75-50 bago ipinalasap sa Blackwater ang ika-7 kabiguan nito sa walong laro.
“It’s been a long, long road for him,” sabi ni Cone patungkol sa kanyang 6-6 wing.
“We watched him from the side and seen the work he’s done so it’s just a culmination of his hard work getting back to the lineup,” dagdag ni Cone. “We’ll try to continue to monitor his minutes for the next few games. Hopefully, it’ll increase incrementally as the games come along.”
Ang Ginebra ay bumuslo lamang ng 29-of-70 mula sa field at nagmintis sa kanilang unang 15 attempts mula sa three-point line at sa unang anim na pagtatangka sa mas malayong arc. Subalit sinabi ni Cone na ang katotohanang nalimitahan ng kanyang tropa ang Blackwater sa mas mababang 23-of-77 clip ang naging susi sa kanilang panalo.
“We said at halftime we only scored 39 points and that was actually less than what we scored in the game against NorthPort, and we gave up 60-plus points,” ani Cone.
“This time we gave up only (32) points or something like that. We didn’t shoot the ball well. I think we missed all of our (three-point) shots until RJ (Abarrientos) kinda sparked us with two three-pointers towards the end of the second quarter,” aniya.
“So we weren’t shooting the ball well, but we came with our defensive chops tonight… and that’s just something that we did not show up with with NorthPort. You gotta give a lot of credit to NorthPort. They shot the ball really well, but they were also getting shots that we shouldn’t have given them. So that’s on them but a lot of that’s on us as well for not showing up defensively. Tonight, we showed up defensively.”
Nanguna si Brownlee para sa Kings na may 18 points habang tumapos si Abarrientos na may 15, kabilang ang dalawang triples na nagbigay sa kanila ng 39-32 halftime lead.
Nag-ambag si Aguilar ng 10 points at 7 boards habang naitala ni Rosario ang lahat ng kanyang 8 points sa third period.
Iskor:
GINEBRA (86) – Brownlee 18, Abarrientos 15, J.Aguilar 10, Ahanmisi 9, Malonzo 8, Holt 8, Rosario 8, Thompson 5, Pessumal 5, Cu 0, Mariano 0, Adamos 0, Pinto 0.
BLACKWATER (63) – King 27, Tungcab 10, Suerte 9, David 5, Kwekuteye 4, Ponferrada 3, Guinto 2, Montalbo 0, Chua 0, Corteza 0, Hill 0, Casio 0, Jopia 0, Escoto 0.
QUARTERS: 19-13, 39-32, 66-45, 86-63.
