BARANGAY Ginebra dug deep before surviving a grueling duel with TNT, 87-83, to continue its winning ways and pick up its sixth victory in the PBA Philippine Cup Friday night at the PhilSports Arena.
With high-flying wingman Jamie Malonzo sidelined by strained calf, the Gin Kings drew stretched out efforts from regulars Christian Standhardinger, Japeth Aguilar and Scottie Thompson and a stepped-up game from backup Nards Pinto to pull through with their third straight win and 6-3 overall, virtually into the quarterfinals.
Standhardinger banged in 20 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in a 42-minute duty. Aguilar produced 20 markers with 10 boards while doing defensive chores on smaller players in a number of situations.
Thompson had 17-10-6 and got the extra duty of trying to defend TNT's Calvin Oftana at some point.
Outside the big three, rookie Ralph Cu had a strong outing of 12 with six caroms as Pinto made five of his seven in the fourth to help fill in the void left by Malonzo, who's out for at least a month.
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With this victory, the Gin Kings also gave themselves a chance to contend for the Top 2 and twice-to-beat advantage.
"It was truly a team performance," said coach Tim Cone, whose squad stayed at third overall behind unbeaten San Miguel (6-0) and idle NLEX (5-2) while dealing the Tropang Giga their fourth loss against the same number of wins.
The Gin Kings threatened to blow their rivals away with a sizzling first-quarter start, 30-13. But the Tropang Giga quickly countered with a 28-11 salvo in the second period to tie it up 41-41. It was a dogfight from there with Ginebra needing clutch three-pointers from Pinto and Thompson to get the upperhand in the stretch.
"We felt like we're down by 20 at halftime because we blew a 20-point lead. In reality it's still a tie. So we still had a game to play and we just had to take it possession by possession in the second half," said Cone. "And I thought our guys did a really good job of doing that."
RR Pogoy and Oftana showed the way for TNT with 19 apiece. (OL)
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The Scores:
GINEBRA 87 - Standhardinger 20, J.Aguilar 20, Thompson 17, Cu 12, Pinto 7, Ahanmisi 6, Onwubere 3, Pringle 2, David 0, Tenorio 0.
TNT 83 - Pogoy 19, Oftana 19, B.Ganuelas-Rosser 12, K.Williams 10, Castro 9, Reyes 5, Montalbo 5, Galinato 4, Aurin 0, Ponferrada 0, Heruela 0, Khobuntin 0.
QUARTERS: 30-13, 41-41, 63-59, 87-83
