By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Barangay Ginebra waxed hot from the three-point territory at crunch time and turned back Meralco, 112-107, in the 2023 PBA Governors’ Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Wednesday, March 1.
Despite coming off Gilas Pilipinas stints against Lebanon and Jordan just a few days back, Justin Brownlee showed no signs of fatigue as he sparked the Kings’ assault with a booming trey to grab a critical 95-93 lead with 5:06 left.
That was all Ginebra needed to turn things around as it launched a 7-4 exchange highlighted with another triple from Brownlee for a 102-97 cushion, 3:01 to go.
The Kings protected their lead from there on, with a Jamie Malonzo’s alley-oop off a pass from Jeremiah Gray sealing their fifth victory in seven games.
While Brownlee made the big buckets when Ginebra needed it most and finished with 29 points and seven assists, it was Christian Standhardinger who carried the fight for Ginebra throughout the game.
The 6-foot-8 power forward flirted with a triple-double of 31 points on a 13-of-18 shooting apart from hauling 10 boards and dishing out seven assists.
The Kings also played selfless basketball as mirrored by their 35 assists, allowing three other players to score in twin figures.
Malonzo added 16 points while Nards Pinto and Gray chipped in 12 points apiece.
Scottie Thompson quietly posted seven points, but contributed with 10 assists, six rebounds and four steals.
Ginebra trailed by as many as 10 points, 37-27, late in the opening quarter and played catch up for the next three frames until that triple from Brownlee in the final five minutes gave them the biggest lead so far.
Meralco attempted to regain the upperhand with Allein Maliksi and KD McDaniels stepping up, but the Bolts ran out of time.
McDaniels had a double-double effort of 28 points and 11 rebounds even as Maliksi fired 23 points that went into naught as the Bolts fell to 5-4.
