By REYNALD MAGALLON
Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone was just glad to see his bench players deliver – more so outplay San Miguel’s supporting cast in Game 1 of their best-of-seven semifinals series on Sunday, Jan.4 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Knowing full well how deep the Beermen are, Cone said he challenged his bench to step up and they responded well — even played pivotal roles in the 99-90 Game 1 win.
“We were very aware that they were the number one team in bench points. So we challenged our guys that we had to come out and really play well against Don Trollano and Jericho Cruz and Juami Tiongson, Mo (Tautuaa) all those guys,” said Cone.
The Kings bench came through with 54 bench points with RJ Abarrientos leading the charge with 23 points.
Ralph Cu and Jayson David also stepped up with 13 and 10 respectively while Norbert Torres, on top of relieving Japeth Aguilar in defending against June Mar Fajardo, also contributed key triples in the payoff period.
“We knew we had to come out and play. But, I thought they did a really good job of keeping the energy,” said Cone
“We went down by 8 points and it was really the 2nd group, Jason and RJ who brought us back into the game and got us a lead, and Ralph., you know, hitting big shots at big moments,” he added.
Not only that Ginebra bench delivered offensively but their defense also limited the usually explosive San Miguel supporting cast.
As a group, SMB bench accounted for just 29 points with no one reaching double figures in scoring. Cone believes a big part of that is limiting Don Trollano.
“We know what Don’s capable of. He’s their third leading scorer coming off the bench.
So, you know, he leads that bench mob and is extremely, extremely valuable to them,” said Cone.
“We do target him amongst everybody else.”
Averaging 16 points a game heading into the contest, Don Trollano was limited to just five points on a 1-of-7 shooting. His running mate, Jericho Cruz, likewise, only had four. They have a combined 3-of-14 shooting from the field.
