By ADRIAN STEWART CO

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings used a massive fourth quarter rally to turn back the Bay Area Dragons, 89-82, in Game 3 of the 2022-2023 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on Wednesday night, January 4.

Down 62-73 early in the fourth quarter, Justin Brownlee drilled two free throws, converted on a two-pointer and knocked down four more consecutive free throws as the Gin Kings cut the Dragons’ advantage to 72-75.

The Dragons got some breathing room at 79-72 on four straight points by Kobey Lam, but a jumper by Brownlee, a three-pointer by LA Tenorio, and another two-pointer from Brownlee tied the score at 79-all.

Ginebra’s run continued with a put back from Earl Scottie Thompson to take an 81-79 advantage before they widened the separation on a booming triple by Jamie Malonzo and a split free throw by Brownlee for an 85-79 count with 36 seconds left.

Bay Area made its last push at 82-85 via a three-pointer by Lam with nine seconds left, but two free throws each from Brownlee and Tenorio secured the come-from-behind victory for Barangay Ginebra.

Brownlee recovered from a subpar first half to finish with 34 points, to go with 17 rebounds, four assists and three steals as the Gin Kings took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Christian Standhardinger added 15 markers, with 13 coming in the opening half, Thompson had 14 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, and four steals, while Malonzo ended with 10 markers for Ginebra.

From a snail-paced scoring in the first quarter, the Dragons zoomed to a 33-25 advantage midway in the second period, but Gin Kings countered with a 10-2 run behind Brownlee, Thompson and Japeth Aguilar to cut the deficit to 35-37 at the half.

Bay Area opened the third quarter with consecutive outside conversions as they built their largest lead at 14 points, but Ginebra slowly clawed its way back to cut it to 57-63 entering the final quarter.

Andrew Nicholson had double-double 23 points and 24 rebounds but suffered an ankle injury late in the game, while Lam chipped in 17 markers, including three treys, for the Dragons.

GINEBRA 89 — Brownlee 34, Standhardinger 15, Thompson 14, Malonzo 10, Tenorio 8, Pringle 5, J. Aguilar 3, Mariano 0, Gray 0, Pinto 0.

BAY AREA 82 — Nicholson 23, Lam 17, Zhu 12, Yang 11, Blankley 10, Ewing 3, Ju 2, Song 2, Liu 2, Reid 0.

Quarterscores: 16-16, 35-37, 57-63, 89-82./ASC, WDJ