BEATEN badly by Meralco in their elims tiff, the Barangay Ginebra Kings were convinced they would need to play at a high level for a chance at payback.
Play better and tougher they did, and the Kings pulled off a 92-88 win over the Bolts in the opener of their PBA Philippine Cup best-of-seven semifinal showdown at the MOA Arena in Pasay City Friday night.
"They locked in, and came together," said coach Tim Cone of the solid Ginebra Game One effort marked by a personal conference high output from Stanley Pringle and double-digit contributions from rookie Ralph Cu, Japeth Aguilar, Maverick Ahanmisi and Christian Standhardinger.
But then Cone was realistic all they got was a 1-0 lead in a long series versus an old rival with new players and a new system under a new coaching set-up.
"The bottom line is it's just Game 1. We put the other team to a reactive phase, but we have to play a lot better. They're an old rival, but they're a new team and we'll try to figure it out," said Cone of the Bolts who scored a lopsided 91-73 win in their elims face-off.
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The two teams engaged in a tight seesaw battle in the first half before the Kings were able to make a key run in the third, open a double-digit spread then withstand the Bolts' fightback in the fourth quarter.
Men of the moment in Ginebra's telling third-quarter roll were Pringle, Ahanmisi and Cu.
"I just tried to focus on each possession," said Pringle on his 22-point effort capped by the game-clinching layup making it 92-86 with 39 ticks to go.
Cu had another big game with 18 points highlighted by 6-of-7 three-pointers, counting two in their third-quarter breakaway.
"It's not a surprise for us as we see him in practice. It could be a surprise to the other teams but not to us," said Cone on the great lift they're getting from their hot-shooting rookie.
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Three-point shooting played a big part in their third-quarter blitzkrieg with Ahanmisi and Scottie Thompson having their own connections from beyond the arc.
Ginebra drained five treys in the third, the last one from Thompson giving the Kings a 73-61 advantage going to the fourth.
Cu finished with a total of 18, Aguilar 17, Ahanmisi 15 and Standhardinger 14. Thompson scored just five but added eight rebounds and five assists.
Chris Newsome led the stand of the losing side with 21 points, 13 rebounds and six assists.(SB)
