TWO days after dropping a career-high 54 points, Justin Brownlee once again carried the offensive load for Barangay Ginebra in Game 6 after finishing with 52 points on Sunday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
This time, however, that 50-piece wasn't enough.
Brownlee’s herculean effort on offense still came up short as his TNT counterpart, Chris McCullough, dropped 53 to lead the Tropang 5G to a 98-90 win to force a winner-take-all Game 7 on Wednesday in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals.
READ C-Mac's monster game enables TNT to drag Ginebra to a Game Seven
The showdown of the two talented imports was reminiscent of the league’s old days where reinforcements basically had to shoulder the brunt of the offensive load, especially in high-stakes match-ups.
Shootouts like this from opposing imports are so rare nowadays that fans would have to go back 37 years since two opposing imports dropped 50 points apiece, when Ennis Wheatley dropped 50 points to lead San Miguel past the Carlos Briggs-led Anejo, 150-136 in the 1989 Reinforced Conference.
Briggs scored 60 that night, according to PBA lead statistician Fidel Mangonon.
“As imports, that’s how it’s got to be,” Brownlee told reporters after the game. “A big game like this you just have to step up for your team, obviously [McCullough] did that very well, I tried to do my best as well.”
As tough as seeing his 52-point night go to waste, Brownlee said that he’s not really surprised that this series is going the distance.
He knows that they’re in for a tough series from the very beginning, and if dropping 50 points is what’s needed to get Ginebra over the hump, then Brownlee is more than up to the task.
“We just want to go out there and win. We want to put our best foot forward. I tried to play the best that I could for our team, but unfortunately that performance didn't mean anything because we lost,” he said.
“I give a lot of credit to TNT. Obviously Chris had a great game. This is what the playoffs are made of. We didn’t expect it to be easy. That’s what it is. Two really good teams who really want to win.”
And should Ginebra count on him to once again take them past the finish line come Game 7, Brownlee promises that he still has plenty left.
“I still feel like I have a lot left,” Brownlee said. “This series is far from over. We’re still very confident. As long as this series is going, I still have a lot left in the tank.”
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