By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel weathered the storm and banked on a fiery second-half rally to take down the struggling Terrafirma Dyip, 106-82, in the ongoing 2022 PBA Philippine Cup.
It was another win to remember for the Ginebra hopefuls after their signature “never-say-die” attitude rose to the occasion again and helped them overcome a third-quarter scare against the Dyip.
From a one-point lead at the 10:20 mark of the third period, the revitalized Terrafirma squad ballooned it to as much as eight, 64-56, after an Andreas Cahilig three-point conversion off a kick-out assist from superstar Joshua Munzon.
Terrafirma looked to be in control for the next five minutes of the quarter but Ginebra countered with their own offensive run spearheaded by their balanced attack to regain the lead, 73-71, at the 3:09 mark.
After Arvin Tolentino’s lead-changing trey, the whole Ginebra team stepped up and waxed-hot from the field and only needed two minutes to extend their two-point advantage to 10 heading into the final canto.
It was all Ginebra in the last quarter after outscoring Terrafirma, 24-10, led by their crisp ball movement that always resulted to open looks.
Terrafirma had difficulty buying a basket in the last 12 minutes of the game and only got field foal conversions from Javi Gomez de Liaño, Joseph Gabayni, Eric Camson, Juami Tiongson, and Munzon.
One of the biggest factors to Ginebra’s fourth-quarter turnaround was Japeth Aguilar’s personal block party after recording seven rejections in the game.
Aguilar tallied Ginebra’s seven blocks out of the eight total with reigning Most Valuable Player (MVP) Scottie Thompson chipping in one.
The veteran power forward also led his team in scoring with 22 points, backstopped by his frontcourt-mate Christian Standhardinger with 18 points.
Ginebra is now back at the top of the PBA PHL Cup standings with a 6-1 win-loss record, sharing no. 1 spot honors with rival team San Miguel Beermen.
