BARANGAY Ginebra continued to climb up the leaderboard after a lopsided 105-86 win over Alaska on Sunday night in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Justin Brownlee flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 28 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists as the Kings extended their win streak to four games to get back to .500 at 5-5.
More importantly, Ginebra moved up to a share of sixth place with GlobalPort - and well within reach of fifth-running San Miguel (5-4) - heading to the league break for the Fiba Basketball World Cup qualifiers.
Incidentally, Ginebra will take on GlobalPort on July 6 at the resumption of the action on Cuneta Astrodome.
Alaska, on the other hand, lost its second successive game and dropped to 7-3 win-loss, leaving the Aces tied with idle TNT KaTropa for for second spot in the race for the second twice-to-beat spot in the quarterfinals.
The Kings went on a 12-5 windup to the first quarter capped by three-pointers by Kevin Ferrer and Joe Devance to open a 30-16 lead that reached 33 points at one point.
Brownlee and LA Tenorio combined for 16 of Ginebra’s 33 points in the second quarter as the Kings pulled away to a 63-38 halftime lead.
Ginebra coach Tim Cone said the team is in a 'really good groove' and he has no idea why.
“We are on a really good groove. I don’t know why. I don’t know what we are doing that is making us as well as we are. But it’s working," said the two-time grand slam winner.
Tenorio scored 12 points to go with five rebounds and five steals while Sol Mercado and Japeth Aguilar had 10 points each for the Kings in their total domination of the Aces.
Vic Manuel hit 20 points - the ninth straight time he hit 20 points or more this conference - but import Antonio Campbell only had six points and eight rebounds for an Aces side missing Calvin Abueva and Jeron Teng.
The scores:
Barangay Ginebra 105 – Brownlee 28, Tenorio 12, Mercado 10, J. Aguilar 10, Slaughter 7, Devance 7, Thompson 6, Caperal 6, Ferrer 6, Mariano 5, Chan 4, R. Aguilar 3, Cruz 1, Manuel 0, Caguioa 0.
Alaska 86 – Manuel 20, J. Pascual 11, R. Pascual 7, Galliguez 7, Banchero 6, Potts 6, Campbell 6, Casio 5, Enciso 4, Baclao 4, Cruz 4, Racal 3, Exciminiano 2, Magat 1, Thoss 0.
Quarters: 30-16; 63-38; 90-58; 105-86.