The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings reasserted their mastery of the Meralco Bolts to tally a 1-0 lead in the PBA Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals.
Scottie Thompson shone the brightest in their 100-92 win over Meralco on Wednesday evening, February 5, at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City.
The 6-foot-1 Ginebra star tallied his conference-high 23 points on top of seven rebounds, six assists, four steals, and a block to give his squad a virtual twice-to-beat advantage in the Best-of-Three series.
For Thompson, this was a matter of stepping up his game, especially since the stakes are higher now that they are in the playoffs.
“Basta playoffs laban sa Meralco, kailangan mo lang mag-step up as a veteran,” said the University of Perpetual Help System DALTA product.
“Alam natin gaano kahirap na manalo dito sa playoffs every game.”
Justin Brownlee also scored the same amount as Thompson while grabbing nine boards and dishing out two dimes, and Japeth Aguilar and RJ Abarrientos were just as admirable, putting up 19 and 14, respectively.
It was a back-and-forth affair for both teams until the payoff period, but Ginebra managed to turn an 87-85 deficit midway through the fourth into a 98-90 advantage at the 4:54 mark, all thanks to the efforts of Thompson, Brownlee and Abarrientos.
This, said Ginebra deputy Richard del Rosario, was a matter of the Kings doing their best to stay disciplined.
“Meralco’s a very good defensive team,” pointed out the long-time Tim Cone assistant coach.
“They made it difficult for us to really execute our offense. So, ‘yun ‘yung challenge namin, how we can stay disciplined with our execution.”
“They do a lot of things that take you out of that execution. But again, I think the players, ‘yung grit namin talaga ang nagpanalo. Also, ‘yung challenge because in the last game against them without the import, we got clobbered on the boards. So I think we did a better job against Meralco on rebounds.
The Gin Kings seek to finish their business against the Bolts on Friday, February 7 at 5:00 p.m. in Game 2 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.
On the other hand, Meralco was paced by Chris Newsome’s 20 points, four rebounds and four assists, as well as the returning Akill Mitchell’s 19-point, 14-rebound performance with six assists and three steals.
Unfortunately, that didn’t help their cause as they failed to chop down Ginebra’s 100-92 lead in the last three minutes.
Both teams went scoreless in the final 2:55 of the contest. (ABS-CBN News)