Ginebra knots series

RENALDO Balkman of San Miguel pulls down the rebound over Justin Brownlee during Game 4 of their Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven finals series last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. ROMAN PROSPERO

Ginebra had a blazing start en route to a 130-100 demolition of San Miguel Beer in Game 4 of their Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven showdown last night at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.

Import Justin Brownlee led the charge with a near triple-double of 37 points on 15-of-18 shooting, 11 rebounds and seven assists as the Kings knotted the series at 2-2, making the last three games highly crucial for both squads.

“That was strange. It was a strange series. I’ve never been in this kind of series. But it’s just a battle of two explosive teams,” said Ginebra coach Tim Cone.

“We’re going back and forth at each other. The greatest attribute in a championship series is being resilient and being able to recover. I’m happy that we came out and did it.”

Fighting a lone battle in the first three games, Brownlee was finally given ample local support with Greg Slaughter, Joe Devance and LA Tenorio contributing 19, 18 and 17 points, respectively, for Ginebra, which led by as many as 38 points.

Arwind Santos, on the other hand, delivered 22 points for the Beermen, who hammered Ginebra in the last two games with an average winning margin of 31.5 points.

Buried in the Beermen’s loss was June Mar Fajardo’s 15 points that formalized his entry to the elite 5, 000-point club in just 287 games, becoming the 90th player in history and the fastest to do it since Mark Caguioa reached the milestone in 279 games in 2007.

Meanwhile, Fajardo solidified his case as the most dominant player in history after formally winning his seventh Best Player of the Conference (BPC) plum in a convincing fashion during the awarding ceremony before the tip off.

The 6-foot-10 Fajardo accumulated a total of 1,153 points to win the PBA-Master Sardines BPC honor over Vic Manuel (766) of Alaska, Stanley Pringle (545) and Sean Anthony (384) of Globalport and Chris Newsome of (360) Meralco.

With this win, the 28-year old Fajardo widened his gap from his mentor Danny Ildefonso, who had five BPC trophies, in the list of most awards won in the league’s 43-year history.

“It’s God-willing. I’m thankful but as I’ve said, the credit goes to my teammates, coaching staff, management and the fans. All of my individual awards could not be possible without them,” Fajardo said.

Also the winner of the conference’s highest individual award in the Philippine Cup, Fajardo already locked the Most Valuable Player (MVP) citation, which will be given in the PBA season-ending conference Governors’ Cup.

Fajardo is currently tied with all time greats Alvin Patrimonio and Ramon Fernandez with most MVP titles in history and another crown this season would make him as the must dominant player ever to play in Asia’s first-ever professional basketball league.

Also running away with personal award was Brownlee, who finally won his first Best Import award after falling short in his first three PBA stints.

The St. John University standout amassed 1,209 points to eclipse Renaldo Balkman (858), Reggie Johnson (650) of Rain or Shine and Diamon Simpson (491) of Alaska.