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Olmin Leyba - The Philippine Star
March 3, 2025 | 12:00am
The Gin Kings asserted their might and blew the Batang Pier out for a third time, 127-100, to move on the doorstep of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
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MANILA, Philippines — Firing on all cylinders and unforgiving on defense, Barangay Ginebra tightened the noose on floundering NorthPort.
The Gin Kings asserted their might and blew the Batang Pier out for a third time, 127-100, to move on the doorstep of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
In an encore of their fiery performance in preceding 115-93 and 119-106 romps, the Gin Kings created separation early, 64-40, to set the tone for a commanding 3-nil tear in the best-of-seven contest.
The charges of coach Tim Cone will try to seal a sweep of the top-seeded Batang Pier on Wednesday in Game 4 and advance to the Last Dance for the second straight conference.
Rain or Shine import Deon Thompson takes a short jumper.
Fit-again Jamie Malonzo dropped a 25-point sizzler spiked by a 4-of-5 clip from the three-point arc to topscore for Ginebra in the 27-point beatdown. His 16-point outburst in the second ignited a telling 34-19 salvo that powered the crowd darlings’ breakaway.
Earlier, Rain or Shine, finally handling its business for 48 full minutes, hacked out a pivotal 103-98 victory over TNT to avoid falling to a 0-3 hole.
After fading in the endgame and losing the first two matches, 88-84 and 93-91, the determined charges of Yeng Guiao showed more poise in bringing this one home against the Jayson Castro-less Tropang Giga.
Adrian Nocum, Deon Thompson, Gian Mamuyac and Caelan Tiongson delivered clutch baskets or free throws to overturn TNT’s rally from 13 down and pull one in the hard-fought race-to-four series.
“We’re hoping to push this to a long series. At least now it’s 2-1 and that means a minimum of five games. We want to drag this to seven games. We’re physically and mentally prepared to play up to Game 7 as we feel the longer it takes, the better chance we have,” said Guiao.
“That’s (a seven-game series) what we’re hoping for. But for now, we’ll take it one by one.”
The high-flying Nocum banged in eight of his 16 in the payoff period.
