MANILA – Stanley Pringle carried the scoring cudgels for Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings in the endgame as they roll past TNT Tropang Giga, 85-79, in the 2020 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup at the AUF Sports Arena and Cultural Center in Pampanga last night.
Holding to a slim 72-70 advantage, Pringle drained eight of the Kings’ last 11 points to increase the lead to 83-76 before the Tropang Giga threatened to within 79-83 after a triple by Bobby Ray Parks Jr.
Earl Scottie Thompson had split free throws for Barangay Ginebra for an 84-79 advantage, but TNT’s Jayson Castro missed his triple try before Thompson iced the win for the Kings with another free throw.
Pringle finished the match with double-double 28 points and 12 rebounds, Japeth Aguilar also posted double-double 19 points and 11 boards while LA Tenorio had 15 points and nine assists as the Kings moved to solo first place with a 7-2 win-loss slate.
The victory also brought the crowd-favorites closer to sealing the top-seed heading into the playoffs round next week with still two remaining games against the San Miguel Beermen on Sunday and TerraFirma Dyip on Monday.
Castro ended up with 19 points, John Paul Erram added double-double 15 points and 13 rebounds while Parks also had double-double 15 points and 13 rebounds as the Tropang Giga drop to 6-3.
Meanwhile, Alaska Aces survived a huge scare from NorthPort Batang Pier to escape with a 102-94 victory. The Aces now secured at least a playoffs seat with their 6-4 slate while the Batang Pier fell to 1-7.
Holding to a 90-76 lead after a triple by Rodney Brondial, the Aces suddenly saw their lead trim to 92-96 with consecutive hits from Batang Pier’s Christian Standhardinger and Garvo Lanete.
Alaska, however, put more pressure on NorthPort as a basket by Maverick Ahanmisi made it a 98-92 score with 37 seconds left. After two freebies by Batang Pier’s Lanete, Ahanmisi and Brondial sealed the win for the Aces with free throws.
Brondial and Abu Tratter led the way with 16 points each while Jeron Teng added 14 markers for the Aces. Standhardinger finished with career-best 39 points to go along with 14 rebounds for the Batang Pier.
BOX SCORE:
GINEBRA 85 – Pringle 28, J. Aguilar 19, Tenorio 15, Dillinger 7, Tolentino 6, Thompson 4, Caperal 2, Chan 2, Mariano 2, Balanza 0.
TNT 79 – Castro 19, Erram 17, Parks 15, Pogoy 12, Washington 9, Enciso 3, Rosario 2, De Leon 2, Reyes 0, Semerad 0, Montalbo 0.
QUARTERSCORES:
Q1, 20-11; Q2, 36-32; Q3, 64-57; Q4, 85-79./PN
