MAVERICK Ahanmisi and Mark Barroca offered a glimpse of intense postseason action amid Barangay Ginebra’s rather uneventful 99-77 rout of Magnolia in the PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals on Saturday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
The Ginebra spitfire guard and the Magnolia veteran playmaker were engaged in a handful of physical battles late in the second half where the Gin Kings were on cruise control on the way to eliminating their archrival Hotshots.
But what happened on the court stayed there.
“It’s just playoff atmosphere and I’m not going to back down just like Mark’s not going to back down. We were just playing hard,” Ahanmisi said.
“After all that altercation we had, probably nobody saw it, but he tapped me on my hip and I tapped him on his hip. It’s just friendly competition,” he was quick to add.
READ Ginebra puts quick and sad end to rival Magnolia's playoff bid
Ahanmisi definitely needed to match the energy of Barroca, who was one of the target men of the Gin Kings’ defensive gameplan.
“Mark was one of the guys that we needed to stop today,” Ahanmisi said. “He played great. But that’s the intensity we got to play with in the playoffs. He knows that as well.”
Barroca still delivered with a team-high 19 points, eight assists, six boards, and one steal in 40 minutes.
But he saw little help from the other Hotshots.
Ahanmisi, on the other hand, was one of five Gin Kings who scored in double figures with 16 markers, built around three treys, on top of six rebounds, and three assists in 38 minutes.
Ahanmisi was surprised to catch Magnolia firing blanks in such an important game.
'We'll see them again'
“I mean, of course. It’s not like we came into this game knowing that we’re going to blow them out,” he admitted. “But everybody played well today. We shared the ball, got a lot of assists. And they just had an off night.
"Usually when we play them, it’s going to be a grind-out game every time, so I’m just glad we got the win tonight. We’ll see them again,” he added.
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