[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’Ginebra aims to claim PBA champsionship in Game 6 ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
By ADRIAN STEWART CO
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
MANILA – The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings hopes to end its eight-year wait for a championship as it takes on the Meralco Bolts in Game 6 of the 2016 Oppo PBA Governor’s Cup best-of-seven finals tonight at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Game time is at 7 p.m. with the Kings looking to annex its ninth PBA trophy, its first since the 2008 PBA Fiesta Cup, while the Bolts will hope to force a sudden-death Game 7 on Friday evening.
The Kings moved closer to bagging the Governor’s Cup trophy following its 92-81 victory over the Bolts in Game 5 last Sunday behind the 32 points, 10 rebounds effort of import Justin Brownlee.
Aside from Brownlee, also providing solid effort for the Kings are Japeth Aguilar, who was earlier listed as doubtful due to an ankle injury, LA Tenorio, Solomon Mercado, and Joe Devance.
“Things kind of came together for us (in Game 5),” said Kings head coach Tim Cone said. “And that’s the first time in this series that that’s happened where we got a little bit of defense and we got a little bit of offense together, playing more of a complete game.”
“However, we’ve just gotten a 3-2 lead. We haven’t achieve anything yet. We hope to finish the job on Wednesday,” he added. “A great team with their back to the wall is hard to beat.”
Bolts head coach Norman Black, for his part, is still confident of their chances to force a do-or-die game despite a subpar performance from his wards during their Game 5 encounter.
“It was not just about our bad start, but we played a bad game,” said Black. “The good thing about a seven-game series is it’s not over yet so they still have to win one more game.”
“They only have three, so what we have to do is get back to the drawing board and try to figure out what went wrong and try to fix it and come back stronger on Wednesday,” he added.
Black will once again rely on Best Import of the Conference awardee Allen Durham, as well as local players Jimmy Alapag, Bacolod City-native Reynel Hugnatan, Clifford Hodge, and Chris Newsome./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
