WITH Stephen Holt and Justine Brownlee leading the way, Barangay Ginebra displayed enough firepower to roll back NLEX, 109-100, in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Malate, Manila.

Holt finished with 20 of his 26 points in the third quarter, shooting 5-of-6 from beyond the arc in 36 minutes of action for the Gin Kings of multi-titled coach Tim Cone.

Brownlee added a double-double performance of 24 points and 12 rebounds.

Japeth Aguilar and Maverick Ahanmisi contributed 15 and 13 points, respectively. Both Aguilar and Ahanmisi also had six rebounds each.

Troy Rosario chipped in nine points on 4-of-11 shooting, seven rebounds and three assists in Ginebra’s uniform.

Michael Watkins led the losing effort for the Road Warriors with 27 points on 12-of-18 shooting and 21 rebounds in almost 44 minutes of play for coach Jong Uichico.

Robert Bolick added 18 points after scoring 39 points against the San Miguel Beer last December 8 at the Ynares Center-Antipolo.

Bolick went 4-of-12 from the field while adding seven assists.

Kevin Alas and Jonnel Policarpio contributed 14 and 13 points, respectively, while Enoch Valdez chipped in 11 markers.

“We knew we’d come out not as good as we wanna be But luckily we’re good enough. We gotta be better, though,” said Cone.

Cone also had good words for Rosario.

“He gets everybody back to comfortable positions. Troy coming in and playing the 4 and 3 positions allows Justin (Brownlee) on the opposite side and takes off some of the load in rebounding,,” added Cone.

Earlier, Calvin Oftana finished with a new career-high 42 points anchored on a new career-best eight triples,while Rondae Hollis-Jefferson added41 points and 13 rebounds as the TNT Tropang Giga came through with a 103-100 victory over Magnolia for their first win after opening up the mid-season tournament with back-to-back losses.

TNT coach Chot Reyes, however, was far from fully satisfied with the win

“Our only focus for this game was effort. That was written on big letters on our board because I was very, very upset with the effort that we showed in the first two games,” said Reyes.

“Even before looking at the technical aspects of the game, not having Jayson (Castro) and Kelly (Williams) and Poy (Erram) as well in the first two games was a big blow for us. But still there’s no excuse for not exerting our best effort.”

“That was why I was very upset with the way we finished the game. We gave up eight points in the last 40 seconds and that goes against everything that we believed in and everything that we stand for as a team.”

The scores:

First game

TNT (103) — Oftana 42, Hollis-Jefferson 41, Pogoy 6, Erram 6, Heruela 4, Nambatac 4, Razon 0, Galinato 0, Khobuntin 0, Varilla 0, Aurin 0.
Magnolia (100) — Ratliff 27, Barroca 18, Abueva 18, Lastimosa 18, Sangalang 9, Eriobu 5, Dionisio 3, Mendoza 2, Dela Rosa 0, Ahanmisi 0, Balanza 0.
Quarterscores: 33-25, 52-48, 83-69, 103-100.

Second game

Ginebra (109) — Holt 26, Brownlee 24, J.Aguilar 15, Ahanmisi 13, Rosario 9, Thompson 8, Abarrientos 6, Cu 6, Adamos 2, Pinto 0.
NLEX (100) — Watkins 27, Bolick 18, Alas 14, Policarpio 13, Valdez 11, Torres 5, Semerad 4, Herndon 4, Rodger 2, Bahio 2, Mocon 0.
Quarterscores: 20-22, 42-43, 78-66, 109-100.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Robert Andaya