San Mig Coffee deals Ginebra first loss

MANILA, Philippines – “For us this game was just trying to get to first place and staying amongst the leaders.” 

Getting to the top of the standings was the biggest prize for head coach Tim Cone and his San Mig Super Coffee Mixers after they trounced Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, 102-90, to gain a 4-1 win-loss record and sit solo atop everybody in the 2014 PLDT Home Telpad PBA Governors’ Cup on Sunday, June 1 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. 

The 3-time champions proved to be too much for the previously unbeaten Ginebra, who now dropped to 3-1, after a sizzling start to the conference under new coach Jeff Cariaso, a former assistant of Cone with San Mig. 

The Mixers still came out on top even as Ginebra controlled the game for the first 3 quarters. 

“For 3 quarters they looked like the dominant team but our experience took over in the fourth quarter,” Cone noted. “We’re experienced with what we do. We know it’s gonna be difficult for them so we tried to exploit that.”

The turning point came midway in the fourth when, after both teams exchanged baskets for most of the third and fourth cantos, the Mixers’ fullcourt pressure defense began taking its toll on Ginebra. 

Two freebies from James Yap put the Mixers ahead, 80-79, before Mark Barroca (11 points) padded onto that with a couple of charities for an 82-79 cushion. 

It was the early beginnings of a massive 16-0 run for the Mixers as Ginebra never found their footing again. 

Mixers import and last Governors’ Cup’s Best Import Marqus Blakely took over for his team in that crucial stretch, scoring 10 of those 16 points, including key steals, on his way to 34 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists and 6 steals. 

At that point, Ginebra was simply deflated owing to the consecutive turnovers they committed and couldn’t convert even on lay-ups on the other end.

“They really put a lot of pressure that caused all those turnovers and that just threw us off course,” Cariaso pointed out the fourth period pressure defense that pushed Ginebra to 20 turnovers, from which San Mig milked 19 points.

That fullcourt press was simply too disruptive for a team still feeling their way around the triangle. 

“We didn’t seem to know what to do when they were pressuring us,” Cariaso said. “That’s one thing most teams do to disrupt the triangle. They don’t even allow us to get to that point.”

He added: “I think what happened there was we weren’t mentally strong enough after a couple of turnovers. So instead of being mentally strong, we put our heads down a little bit.”

Since employing that defensive scheme about 9 minutes into the fourth, Ginebra was only able to score 4 points with the Mixers eventually going on that huge run. 

It was only until Ginebra was blown out of the water and the Mixers safely out of harm’s way did they loosen up somewhat on defense. By then, it was too late for any Gin Kings comeback. 

“Obviously this is an up and coming team, Ginebra,” Cone said in jest, “and we hope they stay up and coming for a while. Let them get to the top in the next conference or so.

“This conference we’re still battling for it. And as I often say to our team, it’s still our time.”

Cone also credited Joe Devance for being the main disruptor in this game and doing a splendid job on passing despite his quiet offensive night of 8 points. He did have 5 assists to his name. 

“Joe was incredible tonight. I’ve never seen a bigman pass the ball like he did tonight. He was an incredible passer that just kind of got the whole triangle moving really smoothly,” he said. “He was our lead guy on the pressure defense in that fourth quarter. He was the one that was disrupting everybody.”

Ginebra import Zaccheus Mason finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Mark Caguioa equalled the import’s performance with 18 markers as well. 

Meanwhile, PJ Simon had 19 points on 8-of-11 field goals for the Mixers. 

Scores:

SAN MIG SUPER COFFEE 102 – Blakely 34, Simon 19, Barroca 11, Maliksi 9, Devance 8, Pingris 8, Yap 8, Sangalang 4, Reavis 1, Mallari 0.

GINEBRA 90 – Mason 18, Caguioa 18, Aguilar 12, Slaughter 11, Tenorio 11, Ellis 6, Helterbrand 5, Monfort 5, Reyes 2, Mamaril 2, Baracael 0, Ababou 0.

Quarter scores: 26-25, 47-50, 70-70, 102-90. 

– Rappler.com