Governors Cup title protagonists Barangay Ginebra and Meralco clash in a super Sunday match, with both sides pressing their bid for a Top Two finish in the PBA Governors Cup elimination round.
The two teams are virtually tied with the Gin Kings at 7-2 and the Bolts at 7-3 going into their 6:45 p.m. setto at the Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo.
Ginebra, however, enjoys the momentum of back-to-back triumphs over San Miguel Beer and Blackwater while Meralco is reeling with two losses in a row against GlobalPort and Star.
Nonetheless, both are expected to wage an all-out battle in what could well be a fierce duel.
The Gin Kings will be nostalgic, coming out in retro jersey to honor the 1991 Ginebra team, the first PBA ball club to come back from a 1-3 deficit to win a best-of-seven championship series.
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Playing coach Robert Jaworski and his team did that against Formula Shell in the first conference of the 1991 PBA season.
Ginebra coach Tim Cone, however, stressed they won’t lose their focus on the task at hand.
“We escaped Blackwater (Friday night) and we know we’ll have to play a more complete game against Meralco if we hope to get by them,” said Cone.
“Coming from a couple of losses, we expect Meralco to bounce back hard against us. Add that to a tough turnaround from Binan to Antipolo, it makes this game double hard for us,” Cone added.
The Ginebra mentor said Joe Devance is still doubtful to play although the 6-foot-8 forward showed up in practice Saturday.
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Meralco coach Norman Black, meanwhile, is longing to see the Bolts squad that dominated the early goings of the mid-season tourney.
The Bolts were pathetic in their 86-94 loss to the Batang Pier and in their 90-108 rout of the Hotshots.
Ranged against Star’s Ricardo Ratliffe, Alex Stepheson bled for just personal tournament-lows of nine points and the same number of rebounds.
Black said Stepheson was slowed down by diarrhea. Worse, Stepheson fouled out with over six minutes left to play.
The Meralco bench chieftain hopes to regain their form sooner than later.
“The fact that we played poorly and the fact that my import is non-existent, that really concerns me moving forward, because whether we have twice-to-beat, whether it’s a best-of-three, we still have to play somebody in the quarterfinals,” said Black after their last game.
“So we wanna go into the quarters playing good basketball, and in the last couple of games we played quite poorly, so we just have to find a way to turn it around,” he added.
