The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel is on their way to the quarterfinals round after they escaped the TNT KaTropa, 96-93.
Japeth Aguilar is a man-possessed logging 29 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Gin Kings. He was later named as the Best Player of the Game.
Aguilar was the only consistent player of coach Tim Cone in terms of scoring who needed to work extra effort as Greg Slaughter sat out due to a thumb injury.
Justin Brownlee added 24 points and 16 boards while LA Tenorio had 19 points and nine boards.
In the first two quarters, BGSM came flat-footed as they had difficulty converting their shots due to TNT’s pesky defense.
Ginebra a team which is known of its triangle offense unable to execute their plays and only made seven assists the entire first half.
Yet, in the third quarter, team “NSD” made adjustments after they came out from their dugout and in the opening quarter of the second half they were able to log 10 assists but most importantly they were able to shift the momentum towards them.
Ginebra’s lead ballooned to as high as 14 points. Still, the KaTropa won’t be in the top four squads if they’re not good. Talk ‘N Text made their run and was able to tie the score at 92-all after RR Pogoy swished his three-pointer with 32 seconds to go.
Stanley Pringle broke that scoring deadlock as he beat KJ McDaniels in an isolation play.
Active consultant Mark Dickels called a timeout to design a play that ended to a Ginebra foul on McDaniels. The TNT import went to the charity stripe and split his freebies, 93-94.
Talk ‘N Text had one chance to send the game into overtime but the desperation three-point attempt of Bobby Ray Parks was a miss.
McDaniels led the KaTropa in their offense with 32 points along with his 12 boards while RR Pogoy added 23 points.
Parks, on the other hand, delivered 17 markers in his TNT debut.
Stan The Man Beats KJ McDaniels In 1-on-1
Ginebra vs Talk ‘N Text Box Score
Gin Kings (96) – Tenorio 19, Pringle 14, Aguilar 29, Brownlee 24, Chan 2, Dela Cruz 8
KaTropa (93) – Parks 17, McDaniels 32, Pogoy 23, Vosotros 2, DiGregorio 2, De Leon 2, Rosario 13, Williams 2