Scottie Thompson and LA Tenorio—both held scoreless for 47 minutes and 30 seconds—scored the final 8 points in the last 30 seconds of the game to lift Barangay Ginebra to a scrambling 92-90 victory over TNT Tropang Giga Wednesday, December 12, 2020 at the Angeles University Foundation Sports Arena & Cultural Center Powered by Smart 5G.
The Gin Kings thus posted a 2-0 advantage in the 2020 Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup best-of-seven championship series.
Stanley Pringle penetrated into the paint then threw a cross-court pass to Thompson at the right corner. Thompson drained a triple to push Ginebra ahead, 87-85, with 30 seconds to play.
TNT’s Jayson Castro missed a triple attempt forcing the Tropang Giga to foul Tenorio who split his free throws to hike the Ginebra lead to 3 points, 88-85, with 18 seconds left to play.
TNT’s RR Pogoy missed a triple attempt forcing the Tropang Giga to foul Tenorio again. This time the Ginebra guard drained both free throws to virtually seal the outcome of the match 90-85 for Ginebra with 9 seconds left.
Troy Rosario would score underneath to cut the Ginebra advantage to 3 points, 90-87, with 3 seconds left to play. TNT again fouled Tenorio who would add two more free throws, 92-87, for Ginebra.
Simon Enciso drained a desperation three-pointer from just past the mid-court line to finalize the count, 92-90.
Aljon Mariano came off the bench for Ginebra to finish with 20 points, 9 rebounds and 1 assist to win Player of the Game honors. TNT seemed to gain control of the game in the second and third periods but Mariano helped his team erase a 15-point deficit to post the scrambling victory.
“Yun nga, we knew from start they would come out aggressive. Flat naman kami sa start. Sa halftime we talked and said we needed to make stops. Maganda naman ang response ng players sa second half kaya nakabalik kami,” said Mariano.
Pringle finished with a team-high 34 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds.
Pogoy exploded with 38 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists but it was simply not enough to beat Ginebra.
Ray Parks, nursing a sore leg, missed the game but it didn’t seem to bother Tropang Giga with Pogoy taking over the scoring chores.
TNT seemed on the way to victory after Pogoy drilled a three-pointer to push Tropang Giga ahead by 7 points, 84-77 with 4:16 left to play.
Mariano converted two free throws to cut that lead to 5 points, 84-79, with 3:24. TNT’s Jayson Castro missed a layup attempt while Pringle drained a three-pointer at the other end to cut the TNT lead to just 2 points, 84-82, with 2:49 left to play.
Castro missed a three-point attempt for TNT while Pringle converted two-of-two free throws to tie the count at 84-84 with 1:53 left to play.
Castro then split his charities to peg the count at 85-84 for TNT paving the way for the scoring run by Thompson and Tenorio which towed Ginebra to victory.
The scores:
Barangay Ginebra 92 – Stanley Pringle 34, Aljon Mariano 20, Jared Dillinger 8, Japeth Aguilar 6, Jeff Chan 6, LA Tenorio 5, Joe Devance 4, Arvin Tolentino 4, Scottie Thompson 3, Prince Caperal 2.
TNT Tropang Giga 90 – Roger Pogoy 38, Simon Enciso 15, Jayson Castro 13, Troy Rosario 11, Poy Erram 11, Samboy De Leon 2, Jay Washington 0, Kib Montalbo 0, Ryan Reyes 0, Dave Semerad 0, Harvey Carey 0.
Quarter scores: 21-17, 36-40, 68-70, 92-90.