LA Tenorio’s excellent playmaking and all-around effort ths past week has helped Barangay Ginebra move closer to a top 2 finish in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup eliminations.
With solid averages of 19.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.5 steals in Ginebra’s victories over Blackwater and Meralco, picking the Accel-PBA Press Corps Player of the Week was no longer a difficult choice as the 5-foot-8 playmaker earned his third weekly citation for the conference.
The 32-year-old Tenorio beat the likes of San Miguel Beer’s Alex Cabagnot, Chris Ross and Marcio Lassiter, Star combo guard Paul Lee and rookie Jio Jalalon, NLEX’s JR Quinahan and Alex Mallari as well as GlobalPort’s Terrence Romeo for the Accel-sponsored Player of the Week for the period of May 22-28.
Knowing how important the team’s last few games are in the eliminations, Tenorio upped the ante of his play after firing 17 points, hauling down 7 rebounds, issuing 5 assists and adding 3 steals in Ginebra’s 96-82 win over Blackwater in Binan, Laguna.
The league’s fourth overall pick in the 2006 PBA Draft highlighted his all-around playmaking with a nifty assist in the final period that led to an easy dunk by import Justin Brownlee en route to a 10-point lead that the Kings never relinquished.
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Meantime, Tenorio showed he wasn’t done yet because two days later, the Ginebra veteran point guard banged in 22 points, grabbed 3 rebounds, dished off the same number of assists and added 2 steals as the Kings nipped the Meralco Bolts 90-89 to grab a share of first palce with idle Star in the standings.
Tenorio’s pair of foul shots late in the game gave Ginebra just enough cushion to withstand Meralco’s tough stand in just the second meeting between the two Finals protagonists in last year’s Governors Cup.
Ginebra will have 5 days to rest before returning to action on the final playdate of the elims this Friday against Mahindra. A win by the Kings would give them the no. 1 seed and the twice-to-beat advantage heading to the quarterfinals.
