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Barangay Geneva coach Tim Cone explained the low minutes his stars played in a lackluster loss Sunday against a San Miguel team struggling to stay alive in the 2020 PBA Philippine Cup.
In a series of tweets on Monday, Cone said the team looked at the big picture rather than going all-out in a comeback attempt against the Beermen, a move the coach said was a risky tactic given the circumstances heading into the game. final leg of the match. conference.
The Gin Kings entered Sunday’s contest with a 7-2 win-loss record that was fueled by a three-game winning streak against Alaska, NorthPort and fellow league leaders TNT. A victory would have secured both of them no. 1 seed and a place within two goals heading into the playoffs.
But against a team that badly needed a big one to stay afloat in the playoff race, the current league leaders just weren’t up to the task.
Pringle averaged 25.3 points on 57.4 percent shooting to go with 8.7 rebounds during Geneva’s winning streak, but played just under 19 minutes, nearly half his usual playing time in this conference. He finished with seven points on 3 of 10 shooting to go with three assists and two rebounds.
Aguilar, for his part, maintained the rhythm he found in the three games before Sunday (15.3 points on 58 percent shooting and 8.3 rebounds) by scoring 13 points on 6 of 7 shots along with five rebounds and three. crashes, but I only managed to log 17 minutes.
Although Tenorio still played his regular minutes, he came back crashing to the ground after a great game against Tropang Giga and missed all seven of his shots on a goalless night against the Beermen.
Cone explained that Geneva simply chose to go with a productive bench unit after looking down a huge hole at halftime.
“If we lose our last two games, we are not sure we will finish in the top four,” Cone said.
“We had a decision to make. If we were late early, we were going to rest those who were hit: Stan (Pringle), Jap (Aguilar), LA (Tenorio), JD (Dillinger). We weren’t risking losing two games. trying to fight back in a game. Playing 5 games in 7 days was a real concern. “
Geneva was down 53-36 at the half, but nearly completed a second-half comeback against SMB, using a 17-0 flurry in the third period to get close to three by one point. Cone relied on Scottie Thompson and the rest of his second unit for most of the last two quarters.
“Being 17 down in the middle, I said we would watch our starters in the first few minutes and determine if we would stick with them or go with the second group. It was the second group with Scottie that brought us back to three points.,” He explained.
But that didn’t turn out to be enough in the end. Geneva slipped into a tie with TNT at 7-3, although the Gin Kings have the tiebreaker if it is a tie for the top seed.
San Miguel, on the other hand, climbed to a four-way tie with Alaska, Meralco and Magnolia to stay in search of a playoff spot and a top-four finish.
“In the end, our guys didn’t show up for SMB and that was disappointing and unacceptable. They know it. But that’s up to me too. I didn’t prepare them well,” Cone lamented.
The Gin Kings can officially secure the top spot if they beat the inhabitants of the Terrafirma Dyip winery on Monday at 6:45 p.m.
“We’ll see who shows up to Terrafirma tonight,” he said. “It’s always up to me to see the bigger picture. Hopefully, I’m doing it. I really apologize to the fans if what we did was interpreted differently.”
