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| Justin Brownlee caught fire to lead Ginebra to a pivotal Game 5 win. Peter Baltazar |
QUEZON CITY—Justin Brownlee unleashed a career-high 54 points in front of 18,039 fans at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Independence Day to help Barangay Ginebra take Game 5 of the best-of-7 PBA Commissioner Cup Finals against TNT in overtime, 100-95.
Gin Kings started the game on fire, with Brownlee, Japeth Aguilar, and RJ Abarrientos leading early in the second quarter, taking a 12-point lead, 34-22.
However, the Tropang 5G found their answer from Chris McCullough and RR Pogoy as they took the lead at halftime, 50-48.
The Tropang 5G continued their dominance in the third quarter, extending their lead to 11 points mid-way through the quarter, 64-53.
The Gin Kings were unable to break through TNT's lead when Brownlee took charge, eventually scoring their last 11 points to force overtime.
Brownlee would score 30 points in the second half of the regulation.
Local scoring from Abarrientos and Troy Rosario, wherein they scored the other six points of Ginebra in overtime aside from Brownlee's five, helped secure the victory for the Gin Kings.
Despite the win, coach Tim Cone expressed concern that being "Justin-centric" in Game 5 could take a toll on the Gin Kings in Game 6 and even Game 7 if the Tropang 5G would take the Sunday night rematch.
"They're putting the pressure on Justin to win Game 5 by himself. They're putting a guy on him that Justin knows he can attack and denying that on everybody else, so they're really forcing Justin to go one-on-one and do his thing. We really have no recourse but to allow it to happen. Otherwise, we're not getting anything done, so it's just really the way they're defending," Cone shared how they responded to the defense of TNT.
Brownlee also had 14 rebounds, five assists, one steal, and one block as Ginebra is now up, 3-2, in the best-of-seven series.
However, Cone would prefer staying focused for Game 6 on Sunday night, also at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, rather than making the most out of the grind-out win, especially since the team already blew a 3-2 lead against TNT before.
"We can't celebrate a game like this as much as you would like to. You just got to put it away and move forward," he further said.
"We've been here before, 3-2, against this team, they came back and beat us twice."
RJ Abarrientos added 13 points, two rebounds, four assists, and one block.
Chris McCullough led the Tropang 5G with 38 points, 16 rebounds, one assist, two blocks, and one steal.
RR Pogoy added 23 points, six rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
The Scores:
GINEBRA 100 – Brownlee 54, Abarrientos 13, J.Aguilar 12, Rosario 10, Thompson 6, Holt 2, Abis 2, Pinto 1, Torres 0, Cu 0, Gray 0
TNT 95 – McCullough 38, Pogoy 23, Heading 13, Oftana 9, Castro 6, Ganuelas-Rosser 2, Nambatac 2, Galinato 2, Williams 0, Khobuntin 0
QUARTERS: 25-17, 48-50, 75-70, 89-89, 100-95
