Ginebra takes Game 4, levels finals series

Maverick Ahanmisi and Stephen Holt hit bigtime baskets at crunch time in Barangay Ginebra’s 106-92 Game 4 victory over defending champion TNT to level the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup best-of-seven finals series to 2-2 Sunday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Kings finally got their outside shots to fall turning the title showdown into a virtual best-of-three to the delight of a huge 16,783-strong crowd composed mostly of Ginebra faithful.

“This is the finals. It’s going to be tough going offensively in the finals. Everybody wants to win so bad, that it’s never just about making shots. It’s always about how much guys want to defend, rebound and hustle. That’s what we're able to do in the past two games,” Ginebra coach Tim Cone said.

The Kings hit 9-of-20 from the three-point area and swished in 3-of-5 from the four-point line. Ginebra had an efficient 36-of-64 field goal shooting – its best offensive game in the series so far.

“In terms of our offense, we just kept making big shots when we needed to and we’ve been doing that pretty much all conference long,” Cone added.   

Protecting a seven-point lead, Ahanmisi nailed a four-pointer to give Ginebra a 101-90 advantage with 2:32 left in the fourth quarter.

JP Erram cut the Tropang Giga’s deficit back to a single digit. Holt missed his trey but got the ball off a steal on Rey Nambatac before making TNT pay with a buzzer-beater triple for a 104-92 Kings lead with 1:28 remaining.

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who won his second Best Import award earlier, missed his three-point attempt in TNT’s possession before Justin Brownlee put the finishing touches for Ginebra with a rim-rattling slamdunk with 1:01 left.    

Brownlee finished with 34 points on 11-of-16 field goal shooting including two quadruples and a pair of threes for the Kings.

Ahanmisi added 18 points, eight rebounds and three assists, Japeth Aguilar also had 18 markers while Holt had his best scoring night of the series with 18 points. Scottie Thompson got 12 markers.

TNT got off to a good start taking a 16-11 lead but failed to sustain its momentum as Ginebra took control.

Calvin Oftana poured 20 points in the first half but only had six ion the next two quarters to finish with 26 for the Tropang Giga.

Hollis-Jefferson finished with 28 points and nine rebounds while Rey Nambatac had 15 markers for TNT.

Game 5 is on Wednesday.

The scores:

GINEBRA (106) --- Brownlee 34, Ahanmisi 18, J.Aguilar 18, Holt 18, Thompson 12, Abarrientos 5, Devance 1, Tenorio 0, Cu 0, Pinto 0

TNT (92) --- Hollis-Jefferson 28, Oftana 26, Nambatac 15, Castro 9, Pogoy 9, Erram 3Aurin 2, Heruela 0, Khobuntin 0, Williams 0

Quarters: 30-25, 54-42, 85-77, 106-92