By REYNALD MAGALLON
Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone tipped his hat off to San Miguel although the veteran mentor lamented how his team lacked the killer instinct in their 100-93 loss in the do-or-die Game 7 Wednesday, July 9.
The multi-titled mentor felt his team has put themselves in the position to win in the second half but they failed to execute. And that did them in.
“We had a chance to put the game away early. In the third quarter, we could’ve stretched the lead. But we let down,” rued Cone as Ginebra squandered a 73-62 lead in the third frame.
Not only that the Kings struggled offensively against the Beermen’s zone defense, consecutive turnovers from Ginebra also fueled the offense of SMB which finally took control of the contest behind a searing 19-4 rally to take an 81-77 advantage.
“They jumped into a zone. We didn’t handle it well. We really lost the game at the end of the third,” said Cone.
“I thought when we didn’t keep the momentum, we gave them back momentum. Turned the ball over a couple of times. We let Chris Ross go down the middle of the defense for layups. Those things all contributed,” he added.
But the veteran bench tactician isn’t taking anything away from SMB conceding that it is the team that wants it more.
“You gotta give credit to Coach Leo. He went to his veterans. He went to Chris Ross. June Mar (Fajardo) played 42 minutes on one leg,” pointed out Cone.
“Sometimes, you just have to tip your cap. They came out and played.”
