BARANGAY Ginebra San Miguel fended off a mighty Meralco rally in the pivotal fourth quarter to post a 115-110 victory in Game 5 on Sunday night to move a win shy of keeping the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup at the jampacked Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Gin Kings controlled much of the game and led by as many as 14 points only to be threatened when the Bolts came to within 98-97 built around a 15-2 run engineered by import Tony Bishop with under five minutes remaining.
Ginebra responded with seven unanswered points that Scottie Thompson highlighted with a three-pointer to halt Meralco’s rally for a 105-97 count with close to two minutes remaining en route to the victory that gave the Gin Kings a 3-2 lead in the race-to-four series.
The conference’s Best Import Justin Brownlee waxed hot all night and finished with 40 points, 11 rebounds and five assists with Thompson contributing 19 points he laced with a near triple-double stats of 11 assists and nine rebounds.
“We scored 115 points against a really, really good Meralco defense,” Ginebra head coach Tim Cone said after the game that saw more than 17,000 fans packing the coliseum. “So that really tells you how well we really shot the basketball tonight.”
But Cone still downplayed his team’s opportunity to end the series in Game 6.
“It’s still very, very far away,” he said.
Arvin Tolentino had 16 points for Ginebra, which torched the net from three-point territory with a 16-of-34 performance.
Bishop wound up with 30 points, 26 he made in the second half, to go with 15 rebounds. Chris Newsome and Aaron Black made 27 and 25 points, respectively.
Game Six set for 6 p.m. on Wednesday also at the Big Dome.