Ginebra knocking on finals door

Christian Standhardinger made a killing from medium range in the crucial stretch of the fourth quarter to put Barangay Ginebra San Miguel on the cusp of securing a finals berth following an 89-84 win over Meralco in Game 5 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup semifinals Sunday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Down 15 in the third quarter, the Gin Kings clawed their way back and unleashed a telling 9-0 run midway in the final canto capped by Standhardinger’s three straight jumpers to turn the tables around and go up, 3-2, in the best-of-seven series.

The odds favor Ginebra as the franchise has won all of its last five best-of-seven series when up after five games. Incidentally, the Gin Kings prevailed in their last three best-of-seven showdowns against the Bolts after taking a 3-2 series advantage.   

Game 6 is on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Standhardinger finished with 34 points on 12-of-17 field goal shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds on top of five assists for the Gin Kings, who won back-to-back games after yielding Games 2 and 3.  

“Well, it looks pretty good now. It didn’t look pretty good two games ago when we were down 2-1 and coming off two losses. But I just gotta give credit to the guys. They kept their heads up, they moved forward, they moved on and just found a way to grind out two wins. Tonight is such a grind-out win,” Ginebra coach Tim Cone said.

“Christian stepped it up making big shots in the fourth quarter and then the guys keeping us in the game. It wasn’t pretty. It was really, really hard out there.”

Meralco looked in control in the third period after erecting a 59-44 lead with 7:01 remaining following a floater from Cliff Hodge. The Gin Kings slowly chipped away their deficit and were able to overtake the Bolts, 82-79, after Standhardinger drained his third straight jumpshot in the pivotal run with 5:35 left.

Meralco tied it at 82 but Japeth Aguilar answered with a putback basket and Scottie Thompson followed with a triple to give Ginebra a two-possession lead.

Chris Newsome returned fire for the Bolts but Standhardinger put the finishing touch with another jumper in the last 1:24 for the final count.

Maverick Ahanmisi had 13 points while Aguilar had a double-double of 10 markers and 12 boards for Ginebra.

Meralco has lost all of its four best-of-seven series when down 2-3, three coming at the hands of Ginebra.

Chris Banchero finished with 18 points but only had two in the second half, Newsome had 17 markers while Hodge got 14 points and eight rebounds for the Bolts.

Allein Maliksi posted 13 points in a rusty 5-of-13 field goal shooting.  

Box scores:

GINEBRA (89) –-- Standhardinger 34, Ahanmisi 13, J.Aguilar 10, Pringle 9, Tenorio 7, Pinto 5, Cu 5, Thompson 5, Pessumal 1, Onwubere 0, Murrell 0

MERALCO (84) --– Banchero 18, Newsome 17, Hodge 14, Maliksi 13, Caram 8, Quinto 7, Almazan 4, Bates 3, Pascual 0, Torres 0, Dario 0

Quarters: 22-19, 40-44, 67-69, 89-84