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Japeth Aguilar and LA Tenorio battled rust and inactivity, but that didn’t matter for a team from Barangay Geneva that had enough firepower beyond their two stars.
The Gin Kings relied on a resurgent second half of their supporting cast to keep NLEX at bay for a 102-92 win in Game 2 of the 2020 PBA Philippines Cup doubleheader restart on Sunday. in the gymnasium of the Fundación Universitaria de Ángeles in Pampanga.
Aljon Mariano led seven players in double figures by scoring 20 for the Gin Kings, who joined San Miguel and TNT at the top of the standings from the start at 1-0.
“We played a lot better than I thought, but I still hope we do a lot better than we did tonight. But it’s good to get first, especially since we didn’t have a lot of practice time with Los Angeles and Japeth.” coach Tim Cone. “I’m grateful for that because it helps us get off on the right foot and I hope we can move forward and move on to our next game with confidence.”
Drawing the offense elsewhere was vital given that Tenorio, who recently came out of laparoscopic surgery, and Aguilar were not in peak physical condition.
The duo, who hit Clark’s bubble just days before the season opener, struggled to get it going against NLEX; Aguilar had seven points (3 of 9) and three rebounds, while Tenorio, who managed to keep his ‘Iron Man’ streak alive in 642 games, scored just one point and missed all four of his shots in 11 minutes.
Fortunately, the rest of the team was up to the task and took over.
Scottie Thompson scored 12 points on three triples and grabbed 11 rebounds. Jared Dillinger and Stanley Pringle also contributed 12, while Caperal, Joe Devance and Jeff Chan added 11 for Geneva.
“We had some guys who really stepped forward into a void. You could see LA was struggling a little bit, he wasn’t his normal self,” Cone said. “Tremendous courage to go out and play two weeks after surgery. It’s just him. He doesn’t want to miss anything. He really wanted to play. But we tried to keep an eye on him, look at him with an eagle eye, make sure he was gone. the game, it was rusty.
“Japeth was the same. He was rusty too. Guys like Aljon really stepped up. Prince did it for us. We had a really good second half from Scottie Thompson.”
Tied at 55 with 8:51 on the clock after the break, Geneva outscored the Road Warriors 20-4 in the next four minutes to take a 75-59 lead that would not budge until the last bell.
JR Quiñahan, who had 10 of his 26 points in the third, kept NLEX afloat, but the team found itself looking for production beyond him after the big man was sent off with 1:37 left in the fourth.
NLEX still managed to stay and uncorked a 7-0 run early in the quarter to cut it to 85-82 and keep the Gin Kings on their toes, but a Prince Caperal three after the timeout stopped the bleeding and kept control of Geneva.
Later, Mariano scored eight straight points on his own to put Geneva ahead, 95-82, and essentially put the game out of reach.
Kevin Alas scored 16 points, eight rebounds and five dimes for NLEX, while Jericho Cruz added 11. Kiefer Ravena had an unusually quiet night with six points on 2-of-8 shots in 31 minutes.
“I thought we did a great job defending Kiefer in the first half. And even though we played very well with him, it was a tied ball game. So I thought maybe we would be in trouble in the second half,” Cone. remarked.
Cone said Geneva still expects more from the rest of the guys at his bench.
“We expect more from Arvin Tolentino. We expect more from Jerrick Balanza. These guys that we think can step up for us. Kent Salado didn’t play today, but he will also have some time and those other rookies of ours, and we have a lot of faith in them.” , He said. “So far, everything is going well. I hope we can move forward and continue to grow as a team as we get in better shape and recover our time.”
THE SCORES
BARANGAY GENEVA (102) – Mariano 20, Dillinger 12, Thompson 12, Pringle 12, Caperal 11, Chan 11, Devance 11, Aguilar 7, Tolentino 5, Tenorio 1, Aguilar 0, Balanza 0.
NLEX (92) – Quiñahan 26, Alas 16, Cruz 11, Porter 9, Soyud 7, Ravena 6, Semerad 5, Miranda 4, Ighalo 3, Galanza 2, Ayonayon 2, Paniamogan 0.
Quarters: 31-22, 48-48, 83-75, 102-92.
EXTRA JARS
– NLEX shot just 40 percent from the field and made just eight of his 33 3s (24.2 percent).
– Geneva made up for the careless handling of the ball (20 turnovers) by finding the net in 12 of his 12 3-pointers (41.4 percent).
NEXT GAMES
– NLEX vs. Magnolia on October 14 at 6:45 pm
– Barangay Geneva vs Blackwater on October 15 at 6:45 pm
