By JONAS TERRADO
ANTIPOLO CITY — Barangay Ginebra San Miguel snatched victory away from Blackwater, 85-82, and opened its PBA Philippine Cup campaign on a high note Sunday, June 12 at the Ynares Center here.
Japeth Aguilar scored the go-ahead jumper with 8.2 seconds remaining as last season’s Governors’ Cup champion survived the upset scare of the Bossing, who were actually leading by three entering the final minute.
Two turnovers committed by Baser Amer sandwiched between Aguilar’s jumper that made it 83-82 proved to be costly as Blackwater fell short of another gigantic victory and a 2-0 start in the season-opening conference.
Instead, Ginebra gave itself a winning start in its quest to win back the All-Filipino crown.
But Ginebra had to weather the tough challenge posed by Blackwater, which was coming off an unlikely victory over TNT last Thursday.
“They had a big win against TNT, we knew they were gonna be confident, we knew they’ll have momentum on their side,” said coach Tim Cone.
“Just watching them on video, they’re playing really, really good basketball. You can’t get anything easy from them, and they really execute offensively. We knew we had to battle, and it could end up being harder than we thought,” added Cone.
Christian Standhardinger scored 21 points while Season 46 Most Valuable Player Scottie Thompson nearly had a triple-double with 14 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists.
Aguilar made 15 points and six rebounds while Stanley Pringle returned to action after missing all but one game in the Governors’ Cup with nine points and 12 rebounds.
Ginebra also won on the night LA Tenorio made his 700th appearance without missing a game in his PBA career. He had five points and four assists off the bench.
Meantime, Jayson Castro scored a go-ahead basket in the dying seconds as TNT narrowly avoided defeat and stunned newcomer Converge, 86-83.
Castro’s runner with 2.6 seconds left in the contest put the Tropang Giga up 84-83 in an incredible turn of events when the FiberXers looked like they were on the verge of beating another PBA heavyweight.
RK Ilagan looked like he would end up the hero once more after knocking down a jumper with 22.9 ticks to go that put Converge in front and TNT’s Glenn Khobuntin committed a turnover for a five-second inbound violation.
But Ilagan couldn’t make his two charities and Castro made a mad dash on the other end to make the winning play that he has done so many times.
A turnover by Converge amid the frenzy plus two made foul shots by J-Jay Alejandro sealed the deal for TNT, which improved to 2-1.
The scores:
TNT 86 — Castro 17, Khobuntin 15, Rosario 13, Pogoy 12, Alejandro 10, Erram 9, Reyes 6, K.Williams 4, Heruela 0, Marcelo 0, Ganuelas-Rosser 0.
CONVERGE 83 — Tolomia 17, Racal 15, Ahanmisi 15, Arana 9, Teng 8, Hill 4, Ambohot 5, Adamos 2, DiGregorio 2, Bulanadi 2, Murrell 2, Ilagan 2.
Quarters: 24-12, 40-36, 63-57, 86-83.
Second Game
GINEBRA 85 — Standhardinger 21, Aguilar J. 15, Thompson 14, Tolentino 12, Pringle 9, Mariano 6, Tenorio 5, Pinto 3, Chan 0, Caperal 0.
BLACKWATER 82 — Suerte 15, Torralba 14, Amer 11, Ular 10, McCarthy 9, Sena 9, Ebona 3, Ayonayon 2, Publico 0, Escoto 0, Melton 0, Casio 0.
Quarters: 22-16, 39-39, 61-67, 85-82.
