MANILA – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings shut the door on the San Miguel Beermen’s grand slam aspirations with a 100-97 win in the 2019 PBA Governors’ Cup quarterfinals last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Kings got its shot to fall in the endgame with Justin Brownlee draining a triple and Stanley Pringle scoring on a layup to turn a 93-95 deficit to a 98-95 advantage.
The Beermen trimmed the deficit to 97-98 on two free throws by John Hollard but two free throws by Pringle and a missed attempt by the SMB ended the match.
Brownlee finished the match with double-double 41 points and 11 rebounds while Pringle and LA Tenorio chipped in 24 and 12 markers, respectively, for the Kings.
Meanwhile, the Beermen fell short anew of its grand slam bid, June Mar Fajardo posted double-double 24 points and 18 rebounds and Holland contributed 20 markers.
In the first game, the Meralco Bolts also punched a ticket to the semifinals round after a 94-84 win over the Alaska Aces.
Allen Durham flirted with triple-double with 28 points, 16 rebounds and eight assists while Allein Maliksi and Chris Newsome had 23 and 17 markers, respectively, for the Bolts.
The Bolts surged to a 13-0 start with hits from Newsome and Baser Amer to take a 29-12 edge. The Aces rallied to within 23-33 but Bolts leaned on Durham for a 49-33 halftime edge.
The Aces clawed its way back to within 58-61 midway in the third but conversions from Maliksi and Anjo Caram gave the Bolts a 73-63 lead heading into the fourth.
Alaska made its last push in the fourth period as it trimmed the deficit to 75-79 but Meralco went for the kill with shots from Durham and Raymond Almazan to make it a double-digit edge./PN
