Ginebra posts third straight victory

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel cruised past Terrafirma, 108-77, to get its third straight win in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup on Friday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Jayson David scored 16 points as the Kings improved to a 5-4 win-loss record ahead of their showdown with Rain or Shine on Wednesday at the Khalifa Sports City Stadium in Bahrain.

Head coach Tim Cone said they are slowly getting back into form as they launch a last-minute bid to clinch one of the coveted twice-to-beat advantages heading into the quarterfinals.

“Again, still maybe getting lucky in getting to the Top 4, but the bottom line for us is that we just want to be playing good basketball when we’re going into the playoffs. Our bench has played well and they’ve been able to continue the momentum that the starters have brought,” Cone said.

“The initial schedule of our games was really tough and we knew we were probably going to get off to a slow start. As I said, we got off to a slower start than we had hoped for but the idea is to always try to create momentum going into the playoffs.”

A layup by Scottie Thompson with 8:47 remaining in the first quarter punctuated a 13-2 run for Ginebra as they led throughout the game.

The Kings even built a 34-point lead, 88-54, with 9:21 remaining in the fourth quarter after David scored on a layup.

Troy Rosario and Norbert Torres scored 13 points each for Ginebra while Japeth Aguilar and Sonny Estil had 12 points each.

Paolo Hernandez scored 15 points for Terrafirma but it wasn’t enough as they sank to a 1-9 slate.