BARANGAY Ginebra coach Tim Cone commended Justin Brownlee for playing through flu to help them cruise to a 93-81 win over San Miguel in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup on Sunday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
“Justin was really under the weather,” Cone informed the media after the postgame conference.
Coming in averaging 28 points in almost 41 minutes per in the first six games of the conference, Brownlee looked like he deferred to the locals this time as six Ginebra players ended up scoring at least eight points each.
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Still, the resident import finished with a solid, all-round outing of 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting, seven boards, three blocks two assists, in 35 minutes.
The 36-year-old naturalized Filipino even scored 10 of his total scoring output in the fourth quarter where the Gin Kings held off an SMB fightback.
Brownlee admitted he is not yet in full fitness.
“Maybe a flu-like thing is going around,” he said. “I got it over the break. Unfortunately for me, I just caught it at the wrong time. That’s all it is. The trainers and staff are doing a great job, so hopefully, the next day or two, it can just pass through.”
Good thing, Brownlee had all the help he could get against the mighty Beermen as Troy Rosario shone with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
“San Miguel is a tough opponent,” Brownlee said. “We knew that coming in. We just got to give a lot of credit to the staff. They had a great gameplan. We executed the best way we can and it just seemed we had all the answers to the test.”
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