MANILA, Philippines — Advantage: Ginebra.
With the force of an erupting volcano, Barangay Ginebra pulled away from Meralco in the third quarter then quashed a fierce Bolts’ uprising to seal a pivotal 92-84 win and a 2-1 lead in PBA Governors’ Cup finals last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Just as Taal Volcano was spewing fire and showering ashes to as far as Metro Manila, the Stanley Pringle-led Gin Kings rained down buckets after buckets on the Raymond Almazan-less Bolts to deliver a telling 35-16 assault that swayed things their way to the delight of the 16,001-strong Sunday crowd.
Red-hot Pringle delivered 17 in that fateful third – where the Gin Kings went up by 23 – to finish with 21 and backstop Justin Brownlee, who delivered 24 markers plus nine rebounds and nine assists and Japeth Aguilar, who drilled in 23 to go with a second-career best seven blocks.
“For the most part, we kinda got our game going tonight, played the way we play. We’re able to get some stops and get on the open court,” said Ginebra coach Tim Cone, taking control back following Meralco’s series-tying 104-102 win over in Lucena two nights before.
“Stanley (Pringle) had a bunch of spectacular plays that really revved up the crowd and defensively, we did a much better job in terms of controlling some of the guys we wanted to control,” he added.
The Gin Kings threatened to rip the game apart as early as the first canto, taking a 19-7 tear behind an Aguilar-triggered 10-0 blast.
It was during this run when Meralco lost Almazan to left knee injury. Almazan had a bad landing off a shot and limped out at 5:55 in the first.
The sight of Almazan needing help to go to the locker room for treatment apparently woke up the Bolts.
Allen Durham and Chris Newsome sparked an 11-0 blast to put Meralco back, 18-19, before wresting the lead at 38-35, and staying within a point behind at the break, 42-43.
Then came the Pringle-fuelled Ginebra eruption. Amid chants of “Gi-ne-bra” “Gi-ne-bra,” the crowd darlings zoomed to a whopping 78-55 margin.
“We kinda made a statement in the third and that kinda keyed us into our rhythm and fans started to get into the game,” said Cone. “It was tough trip coming from Lucena and turning around and playing again but the difference tonight was the crowd. They really lifted our spirits.”
Newsome paced Meralco with 24 while Durham banged in 23, including 12 in their fourth-quarter rally, with 13 boards and seven dimes.