Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings rookie guard RJ Abarrientos during the PBA Governors’ Cup Semifinal Game 5 against San Miguel Beermen. – PBA images
The ball is now in Barangay Ginebra’s court to try to break the trend that San Miguel Beer had hoped but failed to achieve here in Antipolo City on Friday evening.
“We played a special game (tonight) and that impacted the result,” coach Tim Cone said after a 121-92 win in front of a packed crowd at the Ynares Center that left the Gin Kings on the verge of promotion the PBA Governors League brought. Cup final.
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“(But) can we follow up on this? That’s the big question. It’s going to be hard to compete against a team like San Miguel,” Cone added as Ginebra took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series after trading wins again with the Beermen.
Game 6 takes place on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, where Cone and the Gin Kings will try to give the Beermen a victory, who will now take on the role of counterattacker again after failing to maintain a 13-point lead in the first quarter.
Scottie Thompson and rookie RJ Abarrientos were big contributors to Ginebra’s comeback that led to a second straight blowout contest and third place in the series.
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Thompson scored 18 of his 22 points in the first quarter, while Abarrientos continued to impress in his first conference with a career-best 28 points, numbers that Cone and the Gin Kings would like to see by the end of Sunday’s game.
“I always tell the team that the hardest win in a playoff is after you win,” Cone said. “Because the other team will come back with adjustments, with fire and a different mindset, like we did today. We had a different mindset.
“They will come back and when there are two teams that are reasonably equal there will be a series like this. But if you’ve noticed, it’s often the case in Game 7 that the team that wins back-to-back will win the series.
“So we haven’t won in a row yet, now the situation turns to them and I will say what (San Miguel coach Jorge Gallent) did in trying to stop the pattern and see if we “We can come out of this and win Game 6,” Cone added.
Abarrientos shot 9 of 14 from the field, with three 3-pointers and one 4-pointer, in nearly 22 minutes, leading Ginebra San Miguel to 37 points when the third pick in the rookie draft was on the floor.
Cone praised Abarrientos as “a starter off the bench,” which was the case for the majority of Ginebra’s season in the season-opening conference.
Abarrientos faced the challenge of Ginebra trying to surpass San Miguel’s performance and play better defense than in Game 4, when it allowed the Beermen to score 131 to 121 points, a sign of how the Gin Kings played to their opponent’s strength .
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“There was a lot of miscommunication on our part (in Game 4), so our goal was to go into this game with the zeal to win. And that’s why we were successful in this game,” Abarrientos said.