BARANGAY Ginebra continued to roll on Wednesday night, handily beating Meralco, 104-90, to complete a sweep of their PBA Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals series at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Justin Brownlee once again proved to be a thorn in the side of Meralco, hitting big shot after big shot in the breakaway third quarter as the Gin Kings sealed an unlikely place in the semifinals of the midseason conference.
By winning a seventh straight game after a 1-5 (win-loss) start, Ginebra punched a ticket to one of two best-of-five semifinal series against the winner of the last-eight series between top seed Rain or Shine and GlobalPort.
Brownlee finished with 36 points on 14-of-19 shooting from the field. He also tallied six rebounds, nine assists, and three steals to keep alive his quest for a third championship in as many seasons with Ginebra.
“I was very worried about the beginning of the game,” Ginebra coach Tim Cone said about the game's early start. “Didn’t have a chance for our crowd to get into the coliseum first, I was afraid we wouldn’t have the energy. We knew they (Meralco) would come out and punch us in the mouth right off the bat.
“We took the punch and came back with our own. I guess we got within four at the end of the first, we only gave up nine points the rest of the way in that quarter. It was there when the game started to turn for us a little bit,” Cone added.
In the fourth, Ginebra’s lead dwindled to six points, 87-81, but the Kings responded with a triple by Tenorio, who on the next possession dished out a pass to Brownlee for a slam that got them back on track, 92-81.
Arinze Onuaku had 21 points and 13 rebounds, while Chris Newsome got 17 points for Meralco, which entered the playoffs a notch higher than Ginebra at No. 4 seed but never really got its offense going.
The scores:
Ginebra 104 – Brownlee 36, Slaughter 14, Tenorio 11, Aguilar 10, Mercado 9, Devance 8, Thompson 4, Ferrer 2, Caguioa 2, Mariano 0, Manuel 0.
Meralco 90 – Onuaku 21, Newsome 17, Amer 11, Hugnatan 10, Caram 6, Dillinger 6, De Ocampo 6, Hodge 6, Lanete 3, Baracael 2, Canaleta 2, Ballesteros 0, Bono 0, Salva 0.
Quarters: 24-28; 56-51; 79-65; 104-90.
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