By CARLO ANOLIN
Ginebra took care of business just fine even without head coach Tim Cone and routed Converge, 105-89, in the PBA Philippine Cup Friday night, July 1 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Scottie Thompson led all scorers with 24 points on an 8-of-13 shooting apart from tallying six rebounds and six assists as the Gin Kings drew level with the Blackwater Bossing for second to third places with similar 4-1 records.
Japeth Aguilar also shone on both ends, posting 20 points, 11 rebounds, and four blocks while Christian Standhardinger and Stanley Pringle had 13 and 11 points, respectively.
The Gin Kings led by as many as 15 points heading into the payoff period before the FiberXers attempted for a late comeback but to no avail.
The gap was too much to overcome for Converge even as Taylor Browne’s three-pointer cut the deficit to 11 points, 84-73.
The FiberXers couldn’t put a stop to the Gin Kings’ scoring barrage down the stretch behind the efforts of Thompson, Standhardinger, and Arvin Tolentino.
“Para kasing ano, it could be a recipe for disaster. Of course, Converge coming from a tough loss and kami naman coming off a big win against the same team (San Miguel) so we didn’t want to fall into that trap na we’ll take this team (Converge) lightly,” said Ginebra assistant coach Richard Del Rosario.
“I’m just happy that the players responded maganda ‘yong naging laro nila.”
Converge, for its part, fell to a 2-4 record alongside NorthPort.
Meantime, Mikey Williams dropped 31 points to lift TNT past TerraFirma, 114-86.
The Tropang Giga used a strong third quarter surge behind the joint efforts of Williams, Roger Pogoy, JP Erram, and Jayson Castro to pull away for good and improve to a 7-2 record.
Williams, apart from his 31-point outing, also produced seven rebounds and five assists, Erram posted 18 points and nine rebounds, and Pogoy had 15 points and three assists.
After a tightly-contested first half, TNT unloaded vicious 19-1 run capped by Erram’s layup, 76-58, and that practically disarmed the Dyip.
“We knew that this was a tough team. We had no pretensions, we had no illusions about this being an easy game so we knew that [if] they were going to come back, it would be a difficult game,” said TNT head coach Chot Reyes. “So at half time we just talked about some adjustments we needed to make defensively.
The scores:
First Game
TNT 114 – M.Williams 31, Erram 18, Pogoy 15, Alejandro 11, Tungcab 10, Castro 8, Heruela 6, K.Williams 6, Marcelo 6, Cruz 3, Ganuelas-Rosser 0, Banal 0, Khobuntin 0.
TERRAFIRMA 86 – Munzon 25, Gomez de Liano 12, Tiongson 9, Calvo 9, Gabayni 8, Ramos 6, Mina 6, Camson 6, Cahilig 5, Tumalip 0, Balagasay
Quarters: 31-14, 49-48, 84-67, 114-86
Second Game
GINEBRA 105 – Thompson 24, J.Aguilar 20, Standhardinger 13, Pringle 11, Caperal 9, Tolentino 9, Pinto 8, Tenorio 7, Dillinger 0, David 0
CONVERGE 89 – Bulanadi 16, Tratter 13, Ahanmisi 10, Ilagan 10, Racal 9, Ambohot 8, Adamos 7, Arana 6, Stockton 4, DiGregorio 3, Browne 3, Tolomia 0, Murrell 0.
Quarters: 21-22, 50-45, 80-65, 105-89
