MANILA – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings squandered an early lead before pulling away late to score 102-89 over Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in Game 1 of their 2018 PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinals on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Justin Brownlee flirted with a triple-double – 35 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists – to lead Kings to a 1-0 advantage in the race-to-three series.
Jeffrei Chan torched his former team with 21 markers while Gregory Slaughter and Joe Devance had 20 and 14 points, respectively, for Kings.
Kings pulled to a 22-10 start with outside shots from Brownlee and Devance. Painters cut the lead down to a single digit but Kings raised it anew 31-17 with baskets from Slaughter.
Ginebra’s lead grew to as high as 16 points in the second frame with conversions from Brownlee and Chan. Painters countered with a rally to get close 45-50 before Brownlee drained a buzzer beater for a 7-point halftime edge.
Kings was hanging on to a double-digit lead in the third period following shots from Slaughter and Brownlee when Painters had another rally behind Reginald Johnson and James Yap to trim the deficit to as low as 4.
Painters were down by only 5 at 76-81 when Kings executed a finishing run on triples from Brownlee, Chan and Solomon Mercado to widen the lead to its largest in the game at 25.
Johnson led Painters with 30 points while Yap contributed 15 markers./PN
