BARANGAY Ginebra may have lost its third straight game on Sunday but Justin Brownlee expressed confidence the Gin Kings can still turn things around based on the way the team played against San Miguel Beer.
The Kings fought tooth and nail against the defending champion Beermen, but saw SMB center June Mar Fajardo play the hero’s role by tying the game with a jumper with 1.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter to force overtime.
Arwind Santos took over in the extra session, scoring eight points as San Miguel defeated Ginebra, 104-97.
Ginebra fell to 1-5 following another loss, but Brownlee saw something positive in the loss. For one, Brownlee said Ginebra played better against San Miguel than in its loss to Meralco on Friday, the import’s first game back for the Kings.
“Tonight definitely was a tough loss but tonight, though, there were a lot of improvement from Friday’s game,” Brownlee said.
On the statistics side, Ginebra battled against San Miguel in a few departments, getting more offensive rebounds, 29-20, and tallying more steals, 10-8.
Ginebra also led by one point, 92-91, on a triple by Joe Devance only for Fajardo to hit the tying basket that sent the game into overtime.
“This game was definitely an improvement even though we lost. I don’t we took any step backwards. We definitely moved forward from the last. Hopefully, we can just continue that,” said Brownlee.
Even with the tough defeat, Brownlee believes they gained a lot from the loss to San Miguel moving forward.
“We are still confident. Of course, no one wants to be 1-5 but our heads are going to stay up and we are going to keep our confidence and just fight,” said Brownlee.
“Tough loss but I think we can build on this. We can build off it. We just have to stay at it and hopefully, in the next games, we can keep on improving and get a good rhythm to finish the conference.”