Pringle gives Cone the scare despite NorthPort's loss to Ginebra
MANILA, Philippines — Barangay Ginebra went home with the win. But its head coach was definitely going to bed perplexed.
After surviving NorthPort, Tim Cone let out a sigh.
And then clicked his tongue when he was asked about Stanley Pringle, who returned for the Batang Pier after his 2018 Asian Games stint.
“Boy, Pringle is something else, man,” Cone said in the post-game presser, shaking his head. "We came in and tried to scheme him and we couldn’t get him to any of our schemes. He was just too quick. And we tried to contain, he hit threes. And when we tried to get up on his shot he blew by us and got layups.”
The Filipino-American guard posted 34 points to give the Gin Kings quite the scare late Wednesday night. His scoring outburst was not only the best among NorthPort, but also better against anybody from Barangay Ginebra’s side.
“When there’s that import out there along with him, it’s hard to put your total focus on him cause you also have to worry about the import,” Cone offered.
If not for Japeth Aguilar’s hot hands in the final four minutes of the tussle, Pringle would’ve pulled the rug from under the Gin Kings, and would’ve helped his team notch their first victory in the conference.
But he fell short, and the Batang Pier sank to 0-4.
"Japeth hit some key shots down the stretch, got us over the hump. But that game could’ve gone either way,” Cone, the league’s winningest mentor said. “ [NorthPort] changed the way they used Pringle from the last time — the last conference we played them.”
The American tactician even bared that he warned his wards prior the game that they will be playing against two reinforcements.
“We talked about playing two imports, that was our pre-game talk,” Cone said. “He certainly played like one tonight.”
Pringle added seven assists, five rebounds, and three steals to his stat line for the new-look NorthPort.
“Obviously, he’s gonna play as an import with the national team and that goes to show how good he is,” Cone offered in closing.
“Man was he incredible.”
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