BARANGAY Ginebra clicked on both ends when it mattered, rolling to a 95-86 victory over NLEX on Wednesday night at the Mall of Asia Arena to grab the early lead in their PBA Governors’ Cup semifinal series.
Ginebra vs NLEX recap
The Gin Kings banked on a late 15-0 blast that broke a 78-all deadlock and gave them an insurmountable lead, completing a huge turnaround after trailing by as many as 16 points in the second quarter.
Game Two of the best-of-five series is on Friday also at MOA Arena.
The Gin Kings, though, are keeping their fingers crossed after Japeth Aguilar went down with a calf injury, which resurfaced after sustaining it the quarterfinal matchup decider against TNT. Aguilar suffered the injury at the 10:43 mark of the third quarter.
“I’m happy with this win, but it was tempered by Japeth’s injury,” Gin Kings coach Tim Cone said. “It was really important to get the first win to have that margin of error without Japeth.”
“We won’t know the status until tomorrow,” he added.
Justin Brownlee delivered as usual with 27 points, 14 rebounds, six assists, four blocks, and one steal in 42 minutes, while LA Tenorio proved he still has plenty left in the tank, firing 19 points, six boards, and six assists.
Scottie Thompson scored six points in that scorching run late in the game and finished with 15 points, 11 boards, and three assists.
Cameron Clark led the Road Wariors with 30 points and 13 caroms, but found little help as Kevin Alas was the only NLEX local to score in twin digits with 17.
The scores:
Ginebra 95 – Brownlee 27, Tenorio 19, Thompson 15, Tolentino 11, Standhardinger 10, Chan 7, Aguilar 4, Pinto 2, Caperal 0, Onwubere 0, Enriquez 0
NLEX 86 – Clark 30, Alas 17, Semerad 8, Quinahan 8, Trollano 6, Paniamogan 5, Nieto 4, Chua 3, Rosales 3, Varilla 2, Ighalo 0
Quarterscores: 23-29, 43-45, 70-64, 95-86
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