PBA Finals: Buoyed by record crowd, Tim Cone and Ginebra overcome tough Bay Area challenge

BOCAUE – Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone considered his team’s victory over the Bay Area Dragons in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Final as one of the toughest victories he has experienced.

Ginebra needed a decisive Game 7 to defeat Bay Area, relying on a string of scores from Justin Brownlee plus the help of Honda-PBA Press Corps Finals Most Valuable Player Christian Standhardinger, Scottie Thompson and Jamie Malonzo to win 114-99 at the Philippine Arena here.

“Without a doubt,” Cone said before tipping his hat to losing coach Brian Goorjian, the legendary international coach who guided the Dragons, who spent much of the series shorthanded, into the deciding game.

“Brian Goorjian is special. I can honestly say that,” he continued. “They have to go through three different line-ups through this series. One with [Andrew] Nicholson and he played one way. Then he became Chinese, and he played one by one. And then go out with it [Myles] Powell and played the other way around. And his team stayed in the flow.

“When he lost Nicholson, the spirit was incredible, his motor really picked up instead [going] down. He didn’t feel like himself,” Cone added after Ginebra’s seventh title and record 25th.

Ginebra had to deal with the many adjustments the Dragons faced, especially after Nicholson was injured in Game 3 when he rolled his left ankle, had to play without reinforcements in Games 4 and 5 and activated Powell for the last two games of the series.

Cone was disappointed that Ginebra couldn’t get the job done in Game 6 last Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum as Bay Area won 87-84.

But Cone was delighted to receive the support of a record number of 54,589 who came to Bulacan to witness the coronation.

“When you have a crowd behind you, you play better than you are,” Cone said.

“Everyone in the coliseum is important to this win. So we can’t thank everyone enough for showing up.

“Ironically, we didn’t want to play Game 7. We were upset that we had to play Game 7, but I think the guys were upset wherever they were, and they came out and played really well.”

RELATED STORY

Read Next

Don’t miss the latest news and information.

For suggestions, complaints, or questions, please contact us.