CUBAO, PHILIPPINES (Eagle News) – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel put a damper on Meralco’s elimination round finale with a coast-to-coast victory in Wednesday’s PBA Commissioner’s Cup action at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
LA Tenorio brought out a vintage performance of 20 points off a perfect six-for-six from the foul line and seven-for-12 shooting from the field in 34 minutes on the floor. Othyus Jeffers also flirted with a triple double, finishing with 11 points, 15 rebounds, and nine assists in the match.
Mark Caguioa, on the other hand added 16 points, which tied the late Arnie Tuadles for 18th in the all-time scoring list with 9,430.
The result gives Barangay Ginebra an outside shot at the other twice-to-beat edge in the quarterfinals – but must rely on NLEX winning over Alaska, and Tropang TNT winning over San Miguel in the eliminations finale on Friday. Otherwise, they will play in a best-of-three series in the first round of the Commissioner’s Cup playoffs.
Meralco, which allowed an opponent to score over 100 points for the second time this conference, saw its three-game winning streak come to an abrupt end.
Barangay Ginebra Head Coach Tim Cone lauded the defensive effort done by his wards, especially from big man Greg Slaughter, who was tasked to shut down Meralco import Arinze Onuaku.
“We had more a lot at stake in this game more than they did. They were going to get twice-to-beat no matter what. We played well from start to finish. We defended [Arinze] Onuaku well, it started from Greg [Slaughter],” said Cone.
For the game, Onuaku finished with a tournament-low of 10 points with 16 rebounds in 37 minutes of play. Chris Newsome led the Bolts with 23 points on 10-for-23 shooting, while Jared Dillinger added 17 markers in the loss.
Photo credit: Peter Baltazar / Sports On Air
