Cone upbeat on Ginebra’s 3-point game

MANILA, Philippines -- Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone expressed confidence that the team’s torrential 3-point shooting could be maintained throughout the PBA Philippine Cup especially with the squad’s wealth of outside shooters.

Ginebra is currently 2-0 in the All-Filipino conference, winning big over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and the Phoenix Fuel Masters.

In the two games, Ginebra shot 12-of-24 and 16-of-44 from beyond the arc against Rain or Shine and Phoenix, respectively.

Cone said that he thinks the squad has enough 3-point shooters to sustain the hot shooting from rainbow country.

“I think we have the shooters to do that. I think nobody really knows Ralph [Cu] all that much but we see him in practice every day so we’re very, very comfortable when he takes shots. But you know, we still have guys like Stanley [Pringle] and Maverick [Ahanmisi] and Nards [Pinto] who are all very capable 3-point shooters,” Cone told reporters.

Against Phoenix, Cu started and in 18 minutes, he made four of his six 3-pointers, scoring 12 points.

Pinto, Pringle and Ahanmisi combined for seven shots from beyond the arc.

“Jamie [Malonzo has] been shooting the ball extremely well, not just this conference but last conference as well. So we’ve got those guys who can shoot threes,” he added.

The Gin Kings will try to win their third straight against the Meralco Bolts on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Their 3-point shooting will be tested by Meralco, who has kept all four of their opponents so far under 33% from downtown.

“I think we can sustain it. We’re not gonna have great shooting nights every night, but I think we can sustain pretty much the continuity in that.”