AND the war of attrition has begun.
Barangay Ginebra has fully recovered from a 0-2 series start, beating TNT in a defensive duel the last time and striking this time in a shootout to send the PBA Governors' Cup title playoff back to square one.
Justin Brownlee was at the forefront of a torrid Ginebra offense, firing two four-pointers and three treys to highlight a 34-point sizzler and lead the Kings in a 106-92 Game Four triumph that forged a two-games-all deadlock in the race-to-four showdown.
The two teams break the tie in Game Five at the Big Dome.
Stephen Holt drained four treys on the way to an 18-point production, the same outputs put in by Maverick Ahanmisi and Japeth Aguilar as the Kings rolled to a second straight win much to the delight of the predominantly Ginebra crowd of over 16,000 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
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Scottie Thompson was a fifth Ginebra player scoring in double figures with 12 as the Kings hit the century mark for the first time in the series after averaging just 85.6 in the first three games.
The Kings hit at an impressive 56.3-percent clip, with an even higher 60-percent marksmanship (3-of-5) from the four-point zone.
Ahanmisi accounted for their third "four ball" that settled the outcome of the game at 101-90 with a less than two minutes left to play.
Picking up from their 85-73 win in Game Three, the Kings took control right in the opening quarter and set the tempo majority of the way even as Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Calvin Oftana combined for 54 points for TNT.
With Brownlee, Thompson and Ahanmisi combining for 39 points, the Kings sat on a 54-42 cushion at the half and hung on to the lead to the very end.
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It was a shootout with TNT not doing bad with a 54.1-percent clip.
However, the Tropang Giga just couldn't stop a Ginebra team that was well on target.(SB)
