In a ferocious and exciting ballgame, the Barangay Ginebra now has the momentum after beating San Miguel Beer, 87-83, and move closer to winning the title in the 2018 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Sunday night at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
In the last quarter, June Mar Fajardo gave San Miguel the 83-78 lead with a one-handed hammer on the face of Thompson with 3:15 left in the game but this became the eventual prelude to the Ginebra comeback. But Thompson gets back with his huge jumper that gave Ginebra the lead, would put the Gin Kings up 86-83 with an open layup in transition.
San Miguel had an opportunity to tie the game with 23 seconds left but made a couple of unnecessary three-pointers done Arwind Santos and the next one was from Chris Ross’ attempt that got called as an out of bounds violation when he stepped on the sideline.
The Game 5 finally put an end to the unpredictable trend which was seen in Games 1-4 and most of the game ended with 25 points or more.Game 5 gives not only momentum to Barangay Ginebra’s but this is also its second straight win in the series for a 3-2 lead against San Miguel Beer.
For Ginebra head coach Tim Cone, who is just a game away to win his 21st title of his coaching career said, “We don’t want to go to a Game 7 with San Miguel. That team’s just too good and too explosive, and can put up 140 points in any given night”.
“We made the stops when we had to and Justin made a couple of nice plays down the stretch, and we pulled it off,” Cone added. “It’s one of the toughest games I’ve played in the Finals.” In closing Cone said, “We got that crucial Game 5 but we got to make sure we just don’t win the battle and lose the war because the war’s still out there.”
The do or die Game 6 will be on Wednesday night at Mall of Asia Arena and Ginebra hopes to get the Championship crown 2018 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.