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By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter
DEFENDING champions Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings staved off elimination on Wednesday as they defeated the Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok, 107-103, in Game Three of their best-of-five Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup finals series at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Down 0-2 in the series entering the contest, the Kings dug very deep in Game Three to survive and extend the series.
They did so by bucking a rough second quarter and stepping up in the second half before hanging tough in the end to narrow their series deficit.
Barangay Ginebra held a slim one-point lead, 23-22, at the end of the first quarter after which Magnolia turned things around, outscoring the Kings, 36-19, in the second quarter, led by Marc Barroca, to hold a 58-42 lead at the halfway point of the contest.
In the third quarter, import Justin Brownlee and Scottie Thompson led a ferocious fight back by the Kings.
They came to within seven points, 66-59, midway into the frame and eventually seized the lead, 79-78, with three seconds to go.
But Mr. Barroca gave the lead back to the Hotshots, 81-79, with a buzzer-beating heave to finish the quarter.
The Kings got it going at the start of the fourth, racing to a 21-8 scoring lead to build an 11-point cushion, 100-89, after the first seven minutes.
Magnolia though would not let Barangay Ginebra pull away, answering with a 12-1 blitz in the next four minutes to tie the count at 101-all.
Import Romeo Travis scored with 53 seconds to go to push the Hotshots to the lead, 103-101.
Mr. Thompson got back with a deuce nine seconds later to tie the knot anew at 103-all.
A passing error by Paul Lee with 33 ticks left gave back the ball to Barangay Ginebra, which made full use of it with LA Tenorio scoring with 14 seconds remaining to make it 105-103 for the Kings.
Mr. Lee tried to win it for Magnolia with a triple with four seconds to go but it failed to connect, forcing them to foul Mr. Tenorio off a rebound.
Mr. Tenorio iced the game by coolly draining his freebies for the final score.
Barangay Ginebra was led by Mr. Brownlee with 46 points, 19 rebounds and five assists.
Mr. Thompson had 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists while Mr. Tenorio had 14 points.
Mr. Barroca was the high-point man for the Hotshots with 19 followed by Mr. Lee with 17 and Ian Sangalang 16.
Magnolia import Travis only had 12 points to go along with 10 boards.
Game Four of the series is set for Nov. 16 at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City.
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