By REYNALD MAGALLON
The Ginebra of the old and one that everyone is familiar with finally regained its consciousness.
The Kings clamped down on the NLEX Road Warriors and came away with a convincing 119-91 victory to get back on the winning track in Group B in the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
A heartbreaking loss to the erstwhile struggling Blackwater in its last game proved to be the wake-up call as Ginebra’s locals finally stepped up to lead the Kings to their second win in four games.
Stephen Holt put up his best game so far in Ginebra uniform with 26 points, 11 rebounds and six assists to take some load off the shoulders of Justin Brownlee who has been carrying the team in scoring in the past two games.
Brownlee, after pouring 51 and 37 for the Kings over the course of two games, happily took on the role of a facilitator as he let the rest of his locals do most of the damage with Scottie Thompson, Maverick Ahanmisi and rookie RJ Abarrientos also putting together their season-best performances in the win.
Brownlee only finished with 13 points, nine assists and seven rebounds but Thompson picked up the slack in scoring with 19 points.
Ahanmisi, likewise, found the mark and chipped in 20 points while Abarrientos had his best game in his young PBA career with 19 built on three triples.
The Kings have finally rediscovered their defensive fangs as they managed to limit the high-scoring Road Warriors who were coming off a morale-boosting win over the San Miguel Beermen right from the get go.
NLEX failed to score more than 25 points in three quarters except the final frame where it put up 27 points. It was already a huge achievement defensively for Ginebra considering that both Robert Bolick and import Myke Henry have been lighting up the scoreboard in the past two games.
Bolick was feeling under the weather and finished with 19 points after only playing for the first three quarters after the lead was seemingly already out of reach by the final frame when it ballooned to as many as 33 points.
Henry didn’t have his usual touches against the Ginebra defense and only wound up with 16 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists against seven turnovers.
