BARANGAY Ginebra made it a triumphant return for Jamie Malonzo with an 86-63 romp over freefalling Blackwater Sunday in the PBA Commissioner's Cup at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
In his first game after nearly a nine-month and 44-game absence due to a calf injury, Malonzo came off the bench for eight points and three rebounds in just under 11 minutes of action.
Such a relatively meager production hardly made a dent on the Gin Kings' bid to bounce back from a 116-119 loss to NorthPort last Wednesday and improve to 6-3 as Justin Brownlee, RJ Abarrientos, Japeth Aguilar and even ex-Bossing Troy Rosario led those who made significant contributions.
Still, Ginebra coach Tim Cone was obviously pleased with Malonzo's help in his side's 27-13 third quarter that fueled its surge to a 66-45 lead and then as much as a 75-50 spread before ultimately dealing Blackwater a fourth straight loss that dropped it to a 1-6 slate.
"It's been a long, long road for him," said Cone of his 6-6 wing.
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"We watched him from the side and seen the work he's done so it's just a culmination of his hard work getting back to the lineup," added Cone. "We'll try to continue to monitor his minutes for the next few games. Hopefully, it'll increase incrementally as the games come along."
Ginebra actually shot just 29-of-70 from the field and even missed its first 15 tries from the three-point line and its first six tries from the longer arc. But Cone said the fact his team was able to hold Blackwater to an even lower 23-of-77 clip really keyed their victory.
"We said at halftime we only scored 39 points and that was actually less than what we scored in the game against NorthPort, and we gave up 60-plus points," offered Cone.
"This time we gave up only (32) points or something like that. We didn't shoot the ball well. I think we missed all of our (three-point) shots until RJ (Abarrientos) kinda sparked us with two three-pointers towards the end of the second quarter," Cone also said.
"So we weren't shooting the ball well, but we came with our defensive chops tonight... and that's just something that we did not show up with with NorthPort. You gotta give a lot of credit to NorthPort. They shot the ball really well, but they were also getting shots that we shouldn't have given them. So that's on them but a lot of that's on us as well for not showing up defensively. Tonight, we showed up defensively."
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Brownlee led the Kings with 18 points while Abarrientos wound up with 15 anchored on the two triples that gave them a 39-32 lead at halftime.
Aguilar chipped in 10 points and seven boards while Rosario scored all of his eight points in the third period.
George King led all scorers with 27 points but he only made 10-of-20 shots and got practically little help with only Jaydee Tungcab as the lone local Bossing in double digits with 10 markers. (NC)
The Scores :
GINEBRA 86 - Brownlee 18, Abarrientos 15, J.Aguilar 10, Ahanmisi 9, Malonzo 8, Holt 8, Rosario 8, Thompson 5, Pessumal 5, Cu 0, Mariano 0, Adamos 0, Pinto 0.
BLACKWATER 63 - King 27, Tungcab 10, Suerte 9, David 5, Kwekuteye 4, Ponferrada 3, Guinto 2, Montalbo 0, Chua 0, Corteza 0, Hill 0, Casio 0, Jopia 0, Escoto 0.
QUARTERS : 19-13, 39-32, 66-45, 86-63.
