MANILA (UPDATED) -- Christian Stanhardinger sank the all-important basket for Barangay Ginebra as the Gin Kings closed out San Miguel Beer, 87-85, and make their way back to the PBA Governors' Cup finals on Wednesday at the Araneta Coliseum.
With the score tied at 85-all, Justin Brownlee fed Standhardinger the perfect assist. The Fil-German forward sank the layup with 4 seconds remaining in the clock to push the Kings ahead.
Marcio Lassiter tried to steal the game for the Beermen on the other end but bricked his jump shot, thereby allowing Ginebra to close out the best-of-five semifinal series via a 3-0 sweep.
"It sure was different from the first two games isn't it?” said Ginebra coach Tim Cone, who was delighted by their three-game sweep.
"It was like we were down the game 47 minutes and probably 50 seconds. We only led the last 10 seconds of the game. It was amazing that they stuck to the game like they did.”
Ginebra was trailing by 18 when it mounted a vicious run in the fourth period. The Kings eventually got the lead with 1:51 to go when Jeremiah Gray triggered a booming triple in transition to make it 83-82 for Ginebra.
Brownlee jacked it further with a shot near the elbow, before Lassiter came roaring back with a booming triple that knotted the score for the Beermen, 85-all.
Brownlee then baited San Miguel's defenders before feeding Standhardinger the pass. The Fil-German then snuck in the basket at gave Ginebra a two-point lead with four seconds to go.
“You always want to win for our families, the fans, for everybody involved in the team,” said Stanhardinger.
“It's tough to lose Japeth (Aguilar), to lose LA (Tenorio) especially in his situation, but that's part of why we keep fighting so hard.”
As usual, Cone stuck with starting unit to closeout the Beermen. But he said, his troops simply wanted the win.
“I was just wondering do I pull my guys out and live to fight another day on Friday, or do we keep fighting at it? But they kept showing a will. I was looking for them to stop, give up a little bit They never did that.
“So I stayed with them, we made a couple of big shots, some nice stops and won the game.”
Brownlee finished with 22 points, 14 rebounds and four assists. Standharding, who had a hard time scoring against San Miguel, got 17 rebounds, 14 points and seven assists.
San Miguel import Cameron Clark, who struggled to score in the final five minutes to scored the Beermen with 16 points. CJ Perez had 14.
The Scores:
GINEBRA 87 – Brownlee 22, Thompson 17, Standhardinger 14, Gray 13, Malonzo 12, Pinto 4, Pessumal 3, Mariano 2, Pringle 0
SAN MIGUEL 85 – Clark 16, Perez 14, Lassiter 13, Cruz 12, Enciso 11, Tautuaa 6, Herndon 6, Ross 5, Manuel 2
QUARTERS: 17-16, 38-50, 58-70, 87-85
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