Peter June Simon took over on offense late in the game, while Marc Pingris had the defensive play of the game to lead B-MEG to a hard-earned 83-77 victory over Ginebra in Game Two of their Commissioner’s Cup best-of-five semis series Friday at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.
Simon scored eight of his 15 points in the game’s final two minutes, while Pingris had a monster block on a fastbreak layup attempt by Dylan Ababou to preserve the win for the Llamados, who moved a win away from sweeping the series and securing a championship berth.
Simon shattered the game’s final deadlock with a breakaway lay up after a miscue by Ginebra’s Jayjay Helterbrand and Rudy Hatfield, giving B-MEG a 77-75 lead with 2:01 left in the match.
After the teams exchanged empty possessions, Simon picked up a foul off KG Canaleta and made two free throws to pad the Llamados lead to four points.
Two plays later, Pingris turned back Ababou’s shot off an ill-advised pass by Jackson Vroman to save the win for B-MEG.
After the game, B-MEG coach Tim Cone praised his team’s effort.
“It takes a special effort to get 2-0. Normally the team that wins the previous game would only react to the action made by a losing team which wants to get back and win. You need a lot of calmness, living through to some of your mistakes as well as the bad calls and keep on moving forward. Tonight we have these qualities which reason enough for us to go up 2-0,” he said.
Denzel Bowles and James Yap led the scoring for B-MEG with 21 and 16 points, respectively. Canaleta (19 points) and Mike Cortez (17) carried the fight for Ginebra, which drew a sub-par effort from import Jackson Vroman, who finished with just 10 points.
The scores:
B-Meg (83) – Bowles 21, Yap 16, Simon 15, Urbiztondo 12, Pingris 12, Intal 3, Devance 2, Reavis 2, Barroca 0, Burtscher 0, Villanueva 0, De Ocampo 0.
Ginebra (77) – Canaleta 19, Cortez 17, Vroman 10, Helterbrand 8, Hatfield 8, Ababou 6, Raymundo 5, Wilson 3, Wilson, W. 1, Labagala 0, Mamaril 0.
Quarterscores: 23-19; 37-41; 63-59; 83-77.
