Ginebra’s Justin Brownlee in Sport 6 of the PBA Governors’ Cup semifinals.–PBA IMAGES
A season faraway from going empty-handed for the primary time within the Tim Cone period, Barangay Ginebra returned to a well-known vacation spot the place it faces a well-known foe.
Large video games from rookie RJ Abarrientos, Scottie Thompson, Maverick Ahanmisi and Japeth Aguilar, plus the standard late buckets from Justin Brownlee, propelled the Gin Kings to a 102-99 win over the San Miguel Beermen that took Ginebra again to the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals.
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Ahanmisi scored 25 factors after going 9-for-15 from the sector, offering the assist that Brownlee and the standard reliables wanted on the clutch.
Ginebra will meet TNT in a rematch of the 2023 version of the title collection, which ended with Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and the Tropang Giga stopping Brownlee and the Kings in six video games.
Sport 1 is about for Sunday at Ynares Middle in Antipolo Metropolis.
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Cone has introduced Ginebra again to the PBA’s final stage after a pair of semifinal exits within the 2023-24 marketing campaign. That broke a streak of seven straight seasons underneath Cone that the Gin Kings gained a minimum of one championship.
However an offseason retooling, which noticed the arrival of Abarrientos and ex-Terrafirma stars Stephen Holt and the at the moment injured Isaac Go, plus the return of Brownlee to home duties, has instantly paid off for Ginebra.
Not a simple route
It wasn’t simple, nonetheless, because the Kings needed to undergo their previous rival the Meralco Bolts, who beat them in Sport 7 of final season’s Philippine Cup semis with a three-game sweep of the quarters.
Then it was the Beermen’s flip to fall sufferer to the Kings, who additionally avenged their three-game loss to the identical crew within the earlier season’s Commissioner’s Cup semifinals. Paradoxically, each San Miguel and Meralco went on to finish their respective title runs after going via Ginebra.
The ultimate mission can be TNT, which had probably the most variety of wins within the 10-game group stage with eight to prime Group A, and misplaced only one every towards NLEX within the quarters and Rain or Shine within the semis to march into the championship spherical.
Brownlee and Hollis-Jefferson, maybe the ultimate two contenders for the Greatest Import award, will duke it out for the third time for the championship, together with final yr’s Asian Video games when Brownlee and Gilas Pilipinas defeated Hollis-Jefferson and Jordan for the gold in Hangzhou, China. INQ
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