A Royal Beating: Kings reign over Beermen in Game One

MANILA, Philippines — Barangay Ginebra unloaded an explosive first quarter offensive behind import Justine Brownlee and turned a  highly-hyped dream match to a nightmare of an opener for defending champion San Miguel Beer, 127-99, in Game One of their best-of-seven Commissioner’s Cup title series last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Kings were awesome all night with wondrous touch from the long court, with Brownlee hitting 42 points and a murderous running game to post a 31-point lead three minutes into the fourth quarter en route to the one-sided triumph that marked the return of the Kings to the final.

From a 12-point game the last time, Brownlee rebounded with a huge game, going 5-of-5 from beyond the arc and 17-of-19 overall from the field to lead the Kings to a dominant wire-to-wire win in the series opener.

Joe Devance, Greg Slaughter, Sol Mercado, LA Tenorio, Scottie Thompson and Mark Caguioa provided support from all departments as the Kings turned to a rout what was expected to be an explosive Game One.

“That was a surprise. Everybody was surprised. It’s one of those nights that we have it and they don’t have it. We fired on all cylinders, got on their heels early and didn’t let up,” said Ginebra coach Tim Cone.

“This is a game I don’t want to experience. We’re humiliated. I’m outcoached and we’re not able to execute our game plan. The good thing is it’s just the first game,” said San Miguel coach Leo Austria.

A crowd of over 11,000 stood as witness as Brownlee and his Ginebra teammates sent San Miguel’s All-Star core group down on their knees.

Brownlee got his team to a blazing start, and the Kings just never let up with the Ginebra reserves themselves smothering their SMB counterparts in the fourth quarter.

“We needed to be aggressive and win Game One. I tried to do that. Luckily, we got a good rhythm and got some shots going,” said Brownlee.

The two-time Ginebra champion import nearly went unstoppable in a game he also laced with nine assists and seven rebounds.

“He seems like that all the time,” said Cone of his import.

“The last time Gabe (Norwood) was guarding him. Gabe is an outstanding player with his team and all the way to Gilas. But Justin’s able to put up 44. It goes to show how tough he is,” Cone added.

Renaldo Balkman came up with 27 points and 13 rebounds but the rest of the Beermen played below their usual games.

June Mar Fajardo struggled with a 5-of-10 clip for 13 points. His Ginebra counterpart Greg Slaughter turned in 11 markers and seven rebounds.

The scores: 

Ginebra 127 – Brownlee 42, Devance 20, Slaughter 11, Caguioa 11, Mercado 10, Tenorio 9, Thompson 7, Ferrer 7, Mariano 4, Chan 2, Cruz 2, Aguilar 2, Caperal 0, Manuel 0.

San Miguel 99 – Balkman 27, Standhardinger 26, Fajardo 13, Santos 8, Lassiter 6, Cabagnot 5, Nabong 5, Ross 4, Lanete 3, Pessumal 0.

Quarterscores: 35-20, 69-50, 94-75, 127-99