Gin Kings escape Tropang Giga

Scottie Thompson rescued Barangay Ginebra San Miguel from collapse by draining a huge go-ahead triple with under a minute left to down TNT, 87-83, for its third straight win and a spot in the quarterfinals of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup Friday night at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

Thompson shattered an 83-83 tie with a three-pointer off a kickout pass from Christian Standhardinger to give the lead back back to the Gin Kings on their way to notching a third straight win for a 6-3 win-loss record.

Ginebra, which played sans injured winger Jamie Malonzo (strained calf), survived a match that looked to be a one-sided ball game when it built a 21-point advantage in the second quarter only to end up with a thrilling windup.

“It’s trully a team performance. Again, it’s lot of manipulating for them and us that’s why it felt so close,” Gin Kings head coach Tim Cone said.

Japeth Aguilar finished with 20 poinbts and 10 rebounds while Standhardinger also had a double-double of 20 markes and 15 boards to go with five assists for Ginebra, which snapped the Tropang Giga’s two-game win run.

Thompson scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds while rookie Ralph Cu made 12 markers, six rebounds, two assists and a steal for the Gin Kings.

Ginebra seemed to be heading into an easy win, finding its mark for the first one and a half quarter with a great display of firepower over the sluggish defense of TNT.

Sidney Onwubere gave the Gin Kings its biggest cushion, 37-16, with a triple with 9:08 left in the second quarter.

But there’s no safe lead for the Tropang Giga.

TNT mounted a 25-4 fightback and capped the scorching rally with a 14-0 run sealed by a Calvin Oftana triple to knot the game at 41 entering the half.

“We were actually suith the big lead we had. We were really surprised. I wasn’t surprised they made a run back at us, but I was just surprised how fast it happened. It was like a blink of an eye, all of a sudden, we were up 21, all of a sudden, we were tied. That was a bit disappointing,” Cone said.

TNT made a final run after going down 83-75 with 2:34 left, sparking an 8-0 run iced by Oftana’s cold-blooded trey with 1:17 left.

The Tropang Giga absorbed their fourth loss in eight starts.

Oftana and RR Pogoy had 19 points each while Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Kelly Williams fired 12 and 10 markers, respectively.

Box scores:

GINEBRA (87) –-- Standhardinger 20, J.Aguilar 20, Thompson 17, Cu 12, Pinto 7, Ahanmisi 6, Onwubere 3, Pringle 2, David 0, Tenorio 0

TNT (83) --- Pogoy 19, Oftana 19, B.Ganuelas-Rosser 12, K.Williams 10, Castro 9, Reyes 5, Montalbo 5, Galinato 4, Aurin 0, Ponferrada 0, Heruela 0, Khobuntin 0

Quarters: 30-13, 41-41, 63-59, 87-83