MANILA – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings leaned on a strong start to wallop Meralco Bolts, 90-71, in Game 4 of the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals last night at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Japeth Aguilar stepped up offensively with 21 points, six rebounds, two blocks, and a steal as the Gin Kings knotted the best-of-seven Final Four series at 2-2.
Christian Standhardinger had a near triple-double of 15 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists, while Earl Scottie Thompson and Stanley Pringle ended with 15 and 14 markers, respectively, for the Gin Kings.
After their close defeat in Game 3, the Gin Kings were blazing in the opening quarter behind connections from Thompson, Pringle, and LA Tenorio for a 31-16 lead.
The Gin Kings increased the lead to 41-21 midway through the second period on baskets from Aguilar and Thompson, but the Bolts responded with their own shots to cut the deficit to 32-47 at the half.
Meralco rallied to as close as 10 points in the third quarter at 39-49, but Barangay Ginebra quickly restored order to take a 73-49 advantage on five straight points by Thompson.
Barangay Ginebra went on to widen the lead to its largest at 27 points at 87-60 on a layup by Aguilar before Meralco got some garbage time points to trim the deficit to as low as 71-87.
“Definitely, we played better in this game, I just felt our energy were much better,” said Gin Kings head coach Tim Cone. “We starter our veteran guards and they gave us that veteran presence we wanted.”
“It is just nice to have that strong start and to have that big lead, we were able to rest some of our starters, and hopefully, still have that energy for Sunday,” he added.
Allein Maliksi and Chris Banchero led the way for the Bolts with 14 markers apiece, while Chris Newsome contributed 10 markers./PN
BOX SCORE:
GINEBRA 90 — J. Aguilar 21, Standhardinger 15, Thompson 15, Pringle 14, Tenorio 7, Ahanmisi 7, Pinto 4, Cu 3, Gumaru 3, Murrell 1, Pessumal 0, R. Aguilar 0, David 0.
MERALCO 71 — Banchero 14, Maliksi 14, Newsome 10, Caram 8, Hodge 6, Mendoza 5, Torres 4, Quinto 3, Bates 3, Almazan 2, Pascual 2, Pasaol 0, Dario 0, Jose 0, Rios 0.
Quarterscores: 31-16, 47-32, 73-49, 90-71.
