Cone cites Ginebra's Game 6 frustration as key to dominant title-clincher
MANILA, Philippines – The Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings looked unstoppable on Sunday as they took a wire-to-wire 114-99 victory over the visiting Bay Area Dragons for the PBA Commissioner's Cup trophy in Game Seven at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
After going tit-for-tat against the Dragons in the previous six games, the Gin Kings jumped at the gun in the winner-take-all match.
A strong start that was propelled by Justin Brownlee saw Ginebra in control early, and for head coach Tim Cone, that was a by-product of the sorry loss they suffered in Game Six.
"Frankly, we were angry about Game Six. You know, we didn't want to go to a Game Seven." Cone admitted after the game on Sunday.
"We felt we had Game Six in hand, we made that nice comeback and we felt we had it in hand and then we let it slip away and we were angry about that. And I think that anger spilt over into Game Seven. Our guys were really locked in from the very first minute," he added.
Multiple players stepped up to the challenge in front of a record-breaking crowd of more than 54,000 spectators in the venue. From finals MVP Christian Standhardinger to newcomer Jamie Malonzo, each Gin King keyed the team to the victory.
After failing to close out Bay Area in Game Six, everyone was willing to play just a little bit harder for Cone.
"I really feel that they could feel the energy of the crowd, of the 54,000 that were here. You know, just from the very first basket when we scored, when Justin scored on that first basket, it was just, it's hard to explain but you could just feel the energy of the players just go up," said Cone.
"And you know, we kept saying in the timeouts, you know, no one's gonna get tired today, no one's playing tired today we're just gonna battle through, battle through, battle through and when we got that lead I think it just kinda kept us purposeful," he added.
Cone's squad stamped its class on the Dragons, with the Gin Kings leading by as much as 28 points en route to their 15th overall PBA title — making them the second winningest franchise in league history.
- Latest
- Trending
