Jamie Malonzo scores career-high as Ginebra romps ROS for impressive PBA PH Cup debut

Jamie Malonzo was all business in his first game since the mishaps two weeks ago. PBA Images

By Ivan Saldajeno

QUEZON CITY--The past two weeks were probably testy for Jamie Malonzo especially when he had to deal with the fan reactions to a viral video of him involved in a commotion at a restaurant in Taguig.

In his first game back from that debacle, the high-flying forward showed he can soar again with a career-high.

Malonzo dropped 32 points to highlight an impressive performance to lead Ginebra to a 113-107 win against Rain Or Shine to open its PBA Philippine Cup campaign on Friday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Playing with his left eye still hurting from what transpired on the eve of Gilas Pilipinas' home stand against Chinese Taipei, Malonzo was on a mission from the get-go, dropping 15 points already in the first quarter to lead Ginebra to a 33-26 lead.

Malonzo slowed down a bit in the second quarter, but he dropped 11 more points in the third quarter as his team posted its largest lead at 13, 92-79, at the end of the quarter.

ROS, though, still put up a fight in the end.

Down 111-99 with 1:24 to go, the club went on an 8-0 run to cut Ginebra's lead down to four, 111-107, with 16 seconds remaining.

Andrei Caracut thought he stole the ball off the inbound play which led to a Santi Santillan layup that could have trimmed the gap further, but the referee called a foul on Caracut and Maverick Ahanmisi iced the game with two free throws.

Malonzo also chipped in eight rebounds, three assists, two steals, and four blocks for the Gin Kings for an impressive two-way performance, although he committed seven turnovers as well.

Ahanmisi and Christian Standhardinger each added 18 points with Standhardinger completing a double-double with 13 rebounds.

Although Ahanmisi barely missed out on a triple-double with nine rebounds and nine assists, his performance was already enough to make up for the absence of Scottie Thompson, who decided to take a rest after a back injury.

Anton Asistio also fired a career-high with 21 points on five threes along with four rebounds and two assists, but it was not enough to give the Elasto Painters their first win of the conference as they instead slipped to 0-3.

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