BARANGAY Ginebra coach Tim Cone praised the ‘never-say-die’ attitude displayed by the Gin Kings in their rousing 94-87 win over Phoenix Super LPG on Wednesday night in a key match-up in the 2021 PBA Philippine Cup.
Cone said the Ginebra gallery would have erupted in delirious celebration as the Gin Kings fought back from 19 points down to beat the Fuel Masters, keeping their playoff bid the much needed push.
“Imagine what the fans would be doing right now,” said Cone. “They will be roaring. This is a typical Ginebra game. We battled, we came back, and found a way to win. We really miss the fans. I really miss the fans.”
The Gin Kings entered the match having suffered two straight losses and at 3-5, their bid to defend the Philippine Cup crown in jeopardy.
“For us, it was a big game. We needed that. Not just to be moving up in the standing but to create something positive and have a positive feeling around the team,” said Cone.
Cone noted the difference of their current campaign in the semi-bubble with that of the bubble set-up in Clark last year where Barangay Ginebra had little obstacles on its way to the title.
“This is a tough situation. When you start to lose, everything starts to weigh on you in your little hotel room, your other restrictions, no family to talk to or be around, no comfortable bed in your own house. All those things come to bother you when you are losing. When you are losing, it’s hard. It’s really easy to spiral downward and dig a hole when you are losing here much more than if it was a regular conference back in Manila,” said Cone.
Tim Cone and Freddie Abuda
“The journey has been different from our last bubble. We won our first four games. We only had a couple of hiccups along the way and we swept into a championship. We won the championship four games to one. This journey has been so incredibly different and so much harder,” he added.
In the game against Phoenix, Cone said that, due to the conditions and the absence of Japeth Aguilar due to a sprained MCL, it was easy to just roll over and quit when they faced a 33-14 lead late in the first period.
“But these guys, I think about midway or late first, second quarter, there was a real possibility for our players to say, ‘No Mas’, let’s move on, let’s go home, let’s go back to Manila, we are not going to do well in this bubble. But they didn’t. They kept on fighting. I want to say that the never say die attitude came out. I don’t own that. It’s not mine, that’s Sonny Jaworski. But still, it’s a Ginebra never say die and I thought we really showed that tonight.”
“I’m proud of our guys. Now we get to see if we can turn around and do it again and we did it despite the absence of Japeth. That even made it much sweeter,” said Cone.
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