After falling short of winning the championship in the last conference, Ginebra mentor Jong Uichico believes he has the right materials to contend anew for a PBA title in the Governor’s Cup.
Uichico made special mention of versatile import Curtis Stinson.
Barangay Ginebra just won’t fall in a 0-3 hole, coming out strong to get back to life versus the favored San Miguel Beer side in their PBA Philippine Cup Final Four match-up Sunday night.
Egged on by their huge cheering fans at the Araneta Coliseum, the Kings established control early, led by as many as 25 in the second quarter and roared on to a 95-78 win that reduced the Beermen’s lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.
“It’s really a big win for us. We’ve realized what we need to do, and hopefully we can do the same Wednesday. It’s still a tough climb but at least we’re still here to do the climbing,” said Ginebra coach Jong Uichico.
“We came out flat. Tinalo namin sila sa rebounds at iba pang departments but we just couldn’t run our offense. Di tuloy maka-shoot,” said San Miguel coach Ato Agustin.
The Beermen take a second shot at the pivotal third win in the series Wednesday also at the Big Dome.
“They surprised us with their adjustments. Nakita rin naman namin yung mga pick-and-roll plays nila, pero di na rin na-stop. We’ll take a deep look at that in the next two days,” said Agustin.
“Malakas talaga ang kalaban. We can only hope that same thing happens Wednesday,” said Uichico.
The Kings spread the floor and ran their patterns well as they stopped the San Miguel charge and, thus, avoided a 0-3 deficit.
“Nagalit si Mark (Caguioa),” said Uichico in jest.
“Di naman nagalit. It’s just that we got it going,” said Caguioa, who rose to the occasion and helped the team set the tone of the match early.
Caguioa hit everything he threw up in the opening quarter, leading an early Ginebra assault that built momentum carrying the Kings to a 25-point spread at 46-21.
The Kings enjoyed a 20-point cushion at halftime as they converted 61.3 percent of their shots as against the Beermen’s 34.9-percent clip.
Caguioa went 4-of-4 from the field and 1-of-1 from the stripe in the first quarter then Willie Miller and Ronald Tubid took over as the three each logged nine points in the first 24 minutes of play.
Caguioa wound up with a double-double job of 17 points and 12 rebounds with Miller, Tubid, Rudy Hatfield and Eric Menk each adding double-digit markers.
Hatfield, who was 0-of-6 from the three-point area in the conference, nailed two of three to spike a 16-point game he also laced with nine rebounds and five assists against three errors.
The entire Ginebra team was in a zone, hardly giving San Miguel a chance in the contest.
From their 25-point deficit, the best the Beermen could do was cut their deficit to nine.
“The target was to narrow down the gap to single digit going to the final quarter. Naibaba sa siyam pero di rin na-stop ng husto ang Ginebra,” said Agustin.
The scores:
Ginebra 95 - Miller 19, Caguioa 17, Hatfield 16, Menk 12, Tubid 10, Villanueva 7, Helterbrand 6, Aquino 3, Intal 2, Cortez 2, Wilson W. 1, Wilson J. 0.
San Miguel 78 - Washington 13, Hontiveros 13, Santos 11, Cabagnot 9, Pena 8, Salvacion 7, Artadi 6, Miranda 4, Ildefonso 4, Seigle 2, Yeo 0, Racela 0, Pennisi 0.
Ginebra's Christmas fortunes continued this year, and so did the holiday jinx for Alaska.
The Gin Kings rallied from 20 points down in the first half to stun the Aces on Christmas Day, 79-70, and bagged the remaining semifinals berth in the PBA Philippine Cup.
Mark Caguioa finished the comeback started by Ronald Tubid. Then they teamed up to put the finishing touches in the Kings’ dramatic win before an SRO crowd at the Astrodome.
Tubid finished with 16 points, behind Caguioa's team-high 20 points, but it was he who led a big 19-2 run by the Kings in the second quarter.
The league's most popular ball club tied the count at 36 after trailing, 28-8, in the opening period.
The Aces eventually settled for a 41-36 halftime lead.
Caguioa then took over in the second half, where he scored 16 of his total output and took charge in a decisive 15-2 assault that gave Ginebra full control of the match, 75-61 in the final seven minutes.
The Kings also drew a big game from Enrico Villanueva on both ends of the floor with 12 points and 15 rebounds. Rudy Hatfield grabbed 17 rebounds and had 10 points.
"Nakahinga ng konti (Finally, a breather)," said an obviously relieved Ginebra coach Jong Uichico following the win that stretched the Kings' all-time Christmas Day record to 6-1.
"Alaska is so hard to play in the playoffs. Yes, we were lucky tonight. There's always a certain amount of luck involved, but there’s also a certain amount of hard work involved, too."
The Kings won two straight over the Aces to claim their best-of-three quarterfinals series, 2-1.
The loss also marked the second time Alaska went down in a game of great significance right on Christmas Day. Eight years ago, the franchise also lost to Coca-Cola in the decisive Game 7 of the All-Filipino championship.
Ginebra now moves on to the semifinals against No. 2 seed San Miguel, a team that Uichico admitted is giving his team fits as far as size is concerned.
"Their (Beermen's) size hurts us," Uichico said. "I hope it goes the distance, and then we'll have a 50-50 shot. After today, I can look at SMB and see whether we have an advantage in some points."
Their best-of-seven semis series starts on January 5 at the Araneta Coliseum.
Joe Devance led Alaska with 21 points – 13 coming in the first quarter, including a three-point shot that gave the Aces a 20-point spread. He even outscored the entire Ginebra team in that stretch, 13-8.
L.A. Tenorio added 18 points and Sonny Thoss had 13 rebounds and nine points
But a big disappointment for the Aces was Cyrus Baguio, who scored only seven points on a paltry 3-of-16 shooting from the field against his former team.
