Ginebra draws first blood
Justin Brownlee and the Gin Kings continue their fine play in the playoffs.
JUSTIN Brownlee had 27 points, 14 rebounds and six assists as Barangay Ginebra rallied from a huge early deficit to beat NLEX, 95-86, in the opener of their PBA Governors Cup semifinal series on Wednesday.
The 33-year-old Brownlee also had four blocks and one steal in 42 minutes of action at the MOA Arena as the Gin Kings erased a 16-point second quarter deficit against the No. 2 seeds Road Warriors.
The only team from the bottom half of the quarterfinal field to advance to the round of four, the Gin Kings also got a huge lift from LA Tenorio and Scottie Thompson.
Tenorio came up with 19 points, six rebounds and six assists, while Thompson had 15 points, 11 rebounds and three assists.
Cameron Clark had 30 points and 13 rebounds, while Kevin Alas added 17 points, five rebounds and five assists.
Game Two of the best-of-five series is on Friday.
Hotshots take Game One
Paul Lee and the Hotshots share off a sluggish start.
MIKE Harris had 26 points and 16 rebounds as Magnolia downed Meralco in Game One of their semifinal series in the PBA Governors Cup on Wednesday.
Jio Jalalon scored 15, Paul Lee added 13 and Calvin Abueva had 12 points a Meralco fought back from 17 points down to take the opener of the best-of-five series.
Game Two is set on Friday.
Chris Banchero led Meralco with 16 points, six rebounds and three assists, while Bong Quinto had 13 points, five rebounds and four assists off the bench.
Tony Bishop had a measly 10 points on 5 of 19 shooting in nearly 41 minutes of action for the Bolts.
Japeth Aguilar injury
"In the second TNT game, somebody kicked him in the calf," says coach Tim Cone.
GINEBRA forward Japeth Aguilar left the opening game of the semifinal series against NLEX in the third period and never returned.
Aguilar had a quiet outing with four points and five rebounds.
Coach Tim Cone said Aguilar sustained a calf injury in the quarterfinals against TNT.
"In the second TNT game, somebody kicked him in the calf," Cone said.
"And there's a bruise on the muscle and it weakens the muscle."
"We don't know how long, or when he will be back in the series or what at this point. Calf injury is really delicate," added Cone.
Converge starts to assemble team
The new PBA team will also consider members of the Alaska coaching staff.
CONVERGE officials are set to meet with the Alaska players and coaches as it plans the next steps in building a team for the next season.
Only Jeron Teng, Ben Adamos and Taylor Brown have live contracts from Alaska. Converge also holds the signing rights on the unsigned players.
Converge team governor Chito Salud said they will also consider the Alaska coaching staff for the new team, set to see action in the next season starting in June.
“Of course the players are part of the sale, the coaches are part also of the acquisition. So we will review this together with Dickie Bachmann (former Alaska governor) and see how we can move forward,” said Salud during the presser announcing the sale of the Alaska franchise to Converge.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph