In entrance of a crowd of 18,252, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel overcame the Bay Area Dragons, 96-81, to attract first blood within the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals on Christmas Day Sunday on the Mall of Asia Arena.
The Dragons have been down by 11, 72-61, with lower than a minute left within the third interval earlier than they lower the deficit to inside 5, 74-69, early within the fourth interval.
But Ginebra pulled away in the midst of the ultimate body and made an 8-0 run to realize sufficient cushion, 88-74, with 4:08 left within the recreation. It was sufficient at hand Ginebra management regardless of Bay Area’s makes an attempt late within the recreation.
Bay Area had the higher hand early within the match and led 34-26, earlier than Ginebra completed the primary half with a 45-40 lead.
Justin Brownlee registered a double-double efficiency of 28 factors and 13 rebounds, whereas LA Tenorio tallied 22 markers within the Game 1 win.
Christian Standhardinger additionally had a double-double and posted 16 factors and 10 rebounds, whereas Scottie Thompson flirted with a double-double and listed 14 factors and 9 boards. While restricted to only three factors, Jamie Malonzo had 10 boards within the victory.
Andrew Nicholson posted 27 factors and 12 rebounds for Bay Area, whereas Glen Yang and Songwei Zhu scored 12 factors every within the loss. Kobey Lam added 11 factors within the shedding effort.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven finals will probably be performed on Wednesday on the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The scores:
Ginebra 96 – Brownlee 28, Tenorio 22, Standhardinger 16, Thompson 14, J.Aguilar 6, Pringle 5, Malonzo 3, Gray 2, Pessumal 0, R.Aguilar 0, Mariano 0.
Bay Area 81 – Nicholson 27 Ynag 12, Zhu 12, Lam 11, Ju 6, Song 5, Blankley 4, Liu 2, Zheng 2, Reid 0.
Quarters: 22-25, 45-40, 72-64, 96-81.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
