By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter

WINNING teams find ways to win and it could not be truer in the case of defending Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup champions Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings.

Found themselves in a situation where things were seemingly not going as planned last time around, the Kings dug deep and made the necessary adjustments, which saw coach Tim Cone taking a back seat and allowing his deputies and staff to run the show in the second half of their match versus the Meralco Bolts on Sunday.

Struggled mightily in the opening half which had it trailing Meralco for most of the time, Barangay Ginebra regrouped at the break and came out with more fire in the second half to turn things around and book its first win in the midseason PBA tournament, 110-95.

Mr. Cone attributed the win to the team’s decision to allow deputy Richard Del Rosario and the rest of the staff to handle much of the coaching in the second half, to which the players responded well.

“I shouldn’t be the one talking to you guys. It’s should be Richard and the staff because they did much of the talking and the coaching in the second half. And the players responded very well. I couldn’t be prouder. We played as bad as we could possibly have in the first half. We looked like we didn’t have enough fight. It was so discouraging. And they talked about it at halftime and played with more fire in the second half and turned things around,” said Mr. Cone at the postgame press conference.

“Sometimes you just have to have a different voice out there. My voice goes in and out throughout the years and sometimes a different voice is more effective. Whatever it takes, we have to find ways to win. It’s a long conference,” he added.

Import Justine Brownlee led the Kings to the victory with a near-triple double effort of 27 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.

Japeth Aguilar finished with 19 points with Art Dela Cruz, Sol Mercado and Scottie Thompson winding up with 16, 14 and 11 points, respectively.

As a team, the Kings outscored the Bolts, 67-41, in the second half.

Mr. Cone underscored that the win was huge in their mission to repeat as champions.

“This is huge as we avoided dropping to 0-2. We are only playing 11 games in the eliminations and if you go down 0-2 you are literally chasing everybody. It doesn’t mean you cannot do it though. But it takes so much on you if you keep chasing the pack. We are happy we are at 1-1 than 0-2,” Mr. Cone said.

Barangay Ginebra (1-1) opened its Commissioner’s Cup bid with a loss to Blackwater Elite, 108-107, on May 24. Its next game is on June 1 against Northport Batang Pier.

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