Lucena City (CNN Philippines) — Barangay Ginebra evened the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup Finals series, 1-1, after holding off the San Miguel Beermen in overtime, 124-118, on Sunday evening at the Quezon Convention Center in Lucena City.
Japeth Aguilar paced Ginebra with 23 markers, while Kevin Ferrer added 21 of his own.
Scottie Thompson ended the game with 18 points, 18 rebounds, and eight assists for the Gin Kings.
Ginebra rushed to atone for their poor Game 1 outing after blasting San Miguel in the first half, 67-43, but crashed into a wall in the last two quarters.
The Beermen quickly went to work in the third frame, going on a 15-0 run within the first four minutes of the quarter to trim the lead 67-55.
The defending champions would continue to chip at the Ginebra lead, breaking it down to as low as 84-82 with 1:00 to play before the payoff period.
San Miguel were dealt a big blow to their comeback efforts, after Marcio Lassiter was ejected for a second technical foul.
Lassiter scored 16 points in the third period to fuel the Beermen’s run.
Ginebra cradled a precarious 85-82 advantage in the final frame as they aimed to weather the San Miguel storm.
Ronald Tubid got the Beermen within a 91-90 with a triple at the 7:08 mark, before tying the ball game at 93-all with another trey with 6:28 to play.
It boiled down to the final possession in regulation. With the ball inbounded with three seconds left on the clock, Joe Devance sank a desperate put-back to send the game into overtime, 110-all.
A 6-0 rally at the end of overtime proved to be enough for the Gin Kings, as they tucked away the hard fought win to even the series at 1-1.
Arwind Santos led the Beermen with 23 points.
After the game, Ginebra head coach Tim Cone praised his team’s attitude to get past San Miguel.
“We were resilient, we fought through the ups and downs and continued to battle,” Cone said. “We had some good fortune shine on us but we still had to battle and this is best case scenario, get the series tied at 1-1.”
Both teams will contest the series lead in Game 3 on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
