By: Julian A. de la Peña
BARANGAY Ginebra San Miguel prevailed against the Alaska aces Sunday night, 118-106, despite the Aces bringing back former import Diamon Simpson that led them to their 2010 PBA Fiesta Conference Championship.
Chris Banchero of the Aces and Stanley Pringle of Ginebra engaged in an early slugfest, with both players scoring 18 and 15 respectively just in the opening quarter.
Both teams played in good shooting rhythm and perfectly executed their plays as GSM shot 56% in the first quarter while the Aces shot 59%.
As the second quarter started, both teams started to miss good looks and began to rest their imports, Simpson for Alaska and Justin Brownlee for Ginebra,
The half ended with GSM leading 57-52. As the third quarter started, both teams went at it again trading basket after basket and stop after stop.
It was until the 2nd minute and thirtieth second in the 4th quarter where Ginebra looked to pull away headed by “The Gineral” LA Tenorio hitting 3 threes in that span.
Chemistry among Ginebra players showed in the clutch minutes, with side to side ball movement resulting to a basket, garnering stop after stop to prevent the Aces from scoring.
Brownlee scored 27 for the winning team, while Simpson scored 22 and grabbing 20 boards. Both imports got help from the locals, but it’s the combined 71 points of Pringle, Tenorio and Aguilar that helped them notch the win.
In the first game, Columbian Dyip shocked the San Miguel Beermen in an overtime thriller with the score 134-132.
CJ Perez, last year’s number 1 draft was the player of the game, scoring 34 points and placing San Miguel in unfamiliar territory with their record falling to 2-5.
