By JONAS TERRADO
Barangay Ginebra San Miguel coach Tim Cone said that he was surprised himself to steer his team to the semifinals of the PBA Governors’ Cup amid all of the obstacles they faced dating back to the previous conference.
The Gin Kings made their way back to the semis and kept alive their bid to retain the Governors’ Cup after overcoming the twice-to-beat advantage of the TNT Tropang Giga with a resounding 115-95 win before 10,000 fans Saturday, March 19 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Ginebra failed to retain the Philippine Cup when it was booted out in the quarters by the same TNT side, then saw a 3-0 start in the Governors’ Cup negated by a four-game skid before regaining its form to reach the last four.
“It feels good,” Cone said. “I think people tend to forget that we won two championships before and then we had a letdown in the last conference. It’s kind of normal, it’s natural to have that kind of letdown.
“It’s been a trial trying to get everything back to where it was two conferences ago, Having Justin (Brownlee) back helped us out. We went through a bad stretch when we came (from the Covid-19 surge). We were 3-0 and then we lost four games in a row. All to our heels.
“But we kind of recovered, won a couple of games and started getting a little bit of confidence. And then here we are, finally able to beat TNT,” he continued. “My wife was asking me before, saying ‘Can we beat them?’ I said, ‘You want to know the truth, or you don’t want to know the truth?’ She goes, ‘I think I want to know the truth.’ I said, ‘No, we can’t beat them. But we’ll try.’
“So it’s a surprise to me as well as it is to everybody else that we’re here.”
Ginebra was the sixth seed entering the quarters but faced No. 3 TNT which ended the quarters on a five-game winning streak. The Tropang Giga also handed the Gin Kings a 27-point beatdown during their only elims match.
But Ginebra drew big performances from Brownlee, Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar, LA Tenorio and John Pinto to produce a twin victory over a TNT side that saw its bid for a sweep of the season’s two conferences disappear in thin air.
One of the main reasons was Ginebra’s play in limiting TNT rookie Mikey Williams, who in both games had to work hard for his quarterfinal average of 18.0 points on a 32-percent clip.
“We just tried to make it as difficult as we could,” said Cone. “We try to make him get to places that he doesn’t normally go. We have a shot chart for him. We know where he likes to shoot, and we try to get him not to get to those areas where he’s most successful.
“And as well as Scottie and Nards played on him, it was really a team defensive effort, and that’s what I mean by the game plan — when you have a game plan, it’s not about just guarding Mikey, it’s about how the five guys will all guard him.”
After hurdling Williams and the Tropang Giga, the Gin Kings now set their sights on their semifinal matchup with the NLEX Road Warriors which starts Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Though confidence is on a high, Cone knows that setting the tone for what could be another difficult struggle is huge for Ginebra.
“You always want to try to set the tone in Game 1, especially in a five-game series. It’s a quick series, so that Game 1 is crucial.”
GINEBRA 115 — Brownlee 29, Aguilar 26, Tenorio 22, Thompson 17, Standhardinger 10, Pinto 7, Chan 4, Caperal 0, Enriquez 0, Ayaay 0.
TNT 95 — Williams M. 17, Gilmore 14, Castro 12, Erram 11, Williams K. 10, Pogoy 9, Rosario 7, Khobuntin 5, Montalbo 4, Cruz 3, Reyes 3, Marcelo 0, Ganuelas-Rosser 0.
Quarters: 25-29, 59-48, 96-74, 115-95.
