Ginebra takes Game 3, halts finals series skid

Barangay Ginebra resident import Justin Brownlee with tired legs and all would not let TNT bury his side deeper in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup finals.

Brownlee drilled a crucial jumper and made a huge defensive stop down the stretch to carry the Kings to an 85-73 Game 3 victory over the defending champions Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Ginebra found a way to shake off the choking defense of the Tropang Giga to halt a two-game slide and cut its best-of-seven series deficit to 1-2.

“We certainly played a lot better. We played better defense,” Kings head coach Tim Cone said.

Brownlee knocked down a stop-and-pop basket with 2:20 left in the fourth quarter to push Ginebra’s lead to 77-69 before Maverick Ahanmisi scored off a putback for a 10-point separation.

Brownlee then swatted away Glenn Khobuntin’s follow-up shot on the other end. Ahanmisi then intercepted a pass by Calvin Oftana intended for Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and was fouled.

Ahanmisi sank his pair of charities for an 81-69 advantage with 1:05 left.

Khobuntin scored on a layup before Brownlee got sent to the foul line. He split his foul shots before calling it a day with 43 ticks left after a Herculean effort to save Ginebra from falling to a 0-3 hole.

Brownlee finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds to go with four assists, four blocks and a steal in almost 45 minutes of action.  

Ahanmisi had 16 points and eight boards, Scottie Thompson had 15 markers while Japeth Aguilar and Stephen Holt added 10 points each for the Kings. Veteran guard LA Tenorio was a surprise starter and contributed nine points.

Ginebra played with more energy compared to the past two games although still struggling to connect from the outside with 5-of-16 three-point shooting.      

“I think coming from the San Miguel series we’re just a little worn out and not as focused as we should be. The (first) two games kind of woke us up. Hopefully, this wakes us up and get us going to the series,” Cone said.

Ginebra will try to equalize on Sunday.

This one won’t mean much if we don’t get the one on Sunday. Obviously, we had to expend a lot of energy to win this game tonight. Hopefully, we could find a way to get that energy to play on Sunday,” Cone added.

Hollis-Jefferson played all 48 minutes to come up with 24 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists, four steals and one block without committing a single turnover for TNT.

JP Erram added 12 points while Jayson Castro and RR Pogoy had 10 markers each in a lost cause.

The scores:

GINEBRA (85) --- Brownlee 18, Ahanmisi 16, Thompson 15, J.Aguilar 10, Holt 10, Tenorio 9, Cu 3, Abarrientos 2, Devance 2

TNT (73) --- Hollis-Jefferson 24, Erram 12, Castro 10, Pogoy 10, Oftana 9, Khobuntin 4, Nambatac 2, Williams 2, Aurin 2

Quarters: 20-19, 42-39, 62-59, 85-73.