Barangay Ginebra San Miguel finally snapped a back-and-forth trend in its best-of-seven semifinals series against San Miguel Beer and booked a return trip to the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup championship.
The Gin Kings dodged the bullet after Beermen import EJ Anosike and Jericho Cruz missed a couple of potential game-winning four-pointers as time expired in a 102-99 Game 6 escape Sunday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Maverick Ahanmisi fired 25 points on 9-of-15 shooting including a 3-of-6 three-point clip to lead Ginebra to a 4-2 series victory and back into the finals to settle an unfinished business against defending champion TNT.
Game 1 of the best-of-seven finals series is set 27 October at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
Justin Brownlee filled the stats sheet with 21 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, three steals and two blocks while Japeth Aguilar added 20 for the Gin Kings, who notched back-to-back wins for the first and only time in the series.
“It took every little ounce of whatever we have left to win tonight. It just took a long toll to us, them too,” Ginebra coach Tim Cone said.
“Just really thankful we’re not going to a Game 7.”
RJ Abarrientos posted 16 points while Scottie Thompson scattered 10 points and 14 boards for the Gin Kings.
Ginebra had to grind it out with San Miguel swinging until the final buzzer.
Anosike cut the Gin Kings’ lead to 99-98 with two minutes left before Brownlee answered with a stepback triple to push the separation back to four.
June Mar Fajardo split his charities with 1:34 left for a 102-99 count followed by an exchange of empty trips from both sides. San Miguel had two chances of forcing a series extension when Anosike launched a four-pointer that bounced off the rim.
The Beermen got the offensive rebound as Cruz let loose another quadruple that missed its mark in the dying seconds.
Anosike got 30 points and nine rebounds, Fajardo had a double-double of 22 markers and 15 boards while Marcio Lassiter and CJ Perez had 16 and 13 points, respectively, for San Miguel.
The scores:
GINEBRA (102) --- Ahanmisi 25, Brownlee 21, J.Aguilar 20, Abarrientos 16, Thompson 10, Cu 7, Holt 3, Mariano 0, Adamos 0
SAN MIGUEL (99) --- Anosike 30, Fajardo 22, Lassiter 16, Perez 13, Cruz 8, Trollano 8, Manuel 2, Romeo 0, Ross 0
Quarters: 23-27, 46-49, 76-75, 102-99