MANILA – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings survived a gritty stand by the Magnolia Chicken Timplados Hotshots for an 87-84 win in Game 1 of the 2022 PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinals last night at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.
Jamie Malonzo tallied double-double 21 points and 12 rebounds while Earl Scottie Thompson had 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
The Gin Kings took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.
Christian Standhardinger posted 14 points and six rebounds, as reinforcement Justin Brownlee struggled all match long for Ginebra to end up with just 11 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists.
Clinging to a 77-76 lead midway in the fourth, the Gin Kings surged to an 83-76 lead on back-to-back treys by Malonzo and Thompson but the Hotshots responded with a run, capped by a triple by Paul Lee, to cut the deficit to 84-85.
Standhardinger answered with a jumper for an 87-84 Ginebra lead and still had a chance to widen it but Brownlee uncharacteristically missed two free throws but an offensive rebound by Standhardinger sealed the win for the Kings.
Lee top-scored with 21 points, including four triples, Aris Dionisio added 12 markers, while Nicholas Rakocevic, Ian Sangalang and Calvin Abueva had 10 points each for the Hotshots.
In the first game, Kobey Lam scored on a game-winning layup to cap off Bay Area Dragons’ come-from-behind 103-102 win over San Miguel Beermen for a 1-0 edge in the series.
Down 99-102 with 50 seconds left following a layup by Beermen’s June Mar Fajardo, the Dragons first cut the deficit to 101-102 on a layup by Hayden Blankley with 37 seconds left.
Lam then surged Bay Area ahead at 103-102 with seven seconds remaining with a layup. The Beermen still had a chance to win it but Devon Scott missed on his turnaround shot at the buzzer.
Andrew Nicholson led the way with double-double 30 points and 15 rebounds, Songwei Zhu added 19 markers, while Blankley, Mingxin Ju and Lam chipped in 15, 13 and 12 markers, respectively, for the Dragons.
BOX SCORE:
GINEBRA 87 – Malonzo 21, Thompson 16, Standhardinger 14, Brownlee 11, Pringle 8, Tenorio 6, J. Aguilar 6, Gray 3, Mariano 2.
MAGNOLIA 84 – Lee 21, Dionisio 12, Rakocevic 10, Sangalang 10, Abueva 10, Dela Rosa 7, Jalalon 6, Barroca 4, Corpuz 4, Reavis 0, Wong 0, Laput 0, Mendoza 0.
Quarterscores: 24-22, 45-44, 70-67, 87-84./PN
