Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone refused to wallow in sadness despite suffering a 103-99 overtime loss to NLEX in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup late Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Cone said he doesn’t look at the final scores as the Road Warriors pushed them to the limit, giving them a good preparation for the playoffs of the season-opening conference.
Against a desperate Road Warriors squad, the Kings displayed its poise and composure after storming back from an 85-92 deficit in the final 2:14 of regulation to force an overtime.
But NLEX, behind the hot shooting of Anthony Semerad and the untimely exit of Ginebra import Justin Brownlee, refused to be denied as it hung tough to secure their fifth win in 10 games to catch the last bus headed for the quarterfinals.
With the win, NLEX will be facing TNT Tropang Giga in a best-of-five series.
The Kings, on the other hand, was denied of the top spot in Group B and will face old nemesis Meralco, the second-ranked squad in Group A, in the Last Eight.
“I’m really proud of our guys. NLEX had a whole lot more on the line than we did. It was just basically, pretty much, a non-bearing game for us,” said Cone, whose team was torched by the 44 points of NLEX import DeQuan Jones.
“We asked our guys to go out and play hard and they played all the way to overtime. They (NLEX) have a little bit more on the line. They were more desperate than us. They played a little more desperate than we did.”
Cone said they are leaving the setback behind and are now moving on to their next mission, which is to beat Meralco.
After all, they are marching to battle with confidence and optimism after pushing the Road Warriors to the limit in probably the most important game for them.
“In my mind, it was a good prep for the playoffs and that’s the way we took it,” said Cone, wary of the well-oiled and very disciplined Meralco side.
“Now, we know who are getting. We have a couple of days to prepare for them and get going.”