Sep 20, 2018

Injury-plagued Ginebra gets shot in the arm with timely return of Aguilar, Thompson

For Barangay Ginebra, Japeth Aguilar and Scottie Thompson returning healthy from national duty is a relief.

The Kings will lean heavily on the duo as they try to buck injuries to a number of players in an interesting matchup with the Blackwater Elite in the PBA Governors Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Friday night.

Ginebra and Blackwater clash at 7 p.m. in a fight for solo leadership.

"It's been a long break, and we're battling injuries and we're playing a hot team in Blackwater followed by San Miguel Beer. It will be a tough weekend for us to get through," said Ginebra coach Tim Cone.

"Our injury list is long at this point -- Greg Slaughter, Joe Devance, Sol Mercado, Jervy Cruz, Julian Sargent, Raymond Aguilar, Art dela Cruz. Thankfully, Japeth and Scottie came back to us healthy and ready to go," Cone also said.

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"We will lean on them to push us through these back-to-back games. When it gets tough, the tough gets going. We'll see if we can live up to that," he added.

The Kings have strung up three straight wins over the Columbian Dyip, the Alaska Milk Aces and the NorthPort Batang Pier before suffering an assortment of injuries.

The Blackwater Elite have kept pace with the Kings in drubbing the Batang Pier, 113-111, Wednesday night.

"It's a good win providing us the momentum going to our game against Ginebra," said Blackwater coach Bong Ramos.

"Ginebra is Ginebra. But we'll come out and see what we can dish out against them," Ramos added.

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Blackwater is now on its strongest start in a tourney ever. The Elite scored big reversals against the TNT KaTropa Texters and the San Miguel Beermen before nailing win No. 3 over the Batang Pier.

Ramos' troops charged back from an 18-point deficit late in the first half and found unlikely heroes in Chris Javier and John Pinto at crunch time in salvaging the win.

Henry Walker, Mike Digregorio and Poy Erram carried the cudgels early on before Javier and Pinto seized the moment at endgame as the Elite sustained their surprise hot run and caught up with the Barangay Ginebra Kings ahead of their exciting matchup.


Javier, a sparingly used player since turning pro as the second-round draft selection by Magnolia in 2016, knocked in two big baskets to make it 108-101 for Blackwater with 1:47 left to play.

Then Blackwater was only up by three at 108-105 when Pinto drilled in a trey with time down to 31.5 seconds, capping a solid all-around game marked by a career-high 13 assists, eight points and seven rebounds.(SB)