Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone said his wards had to tap into a vintage, hard-nosed style of play against Rain Or Shine to get a spot in the 2020 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals.

"We got to go play some old-style Ginebra basketball. We went back to the 90s, played that kind of style of basketball," Cone said after Ginebra squeezed out an 81-73 victory over the Elasto Painters.

Japeth Aguilar led the way for Ginebra with 23 points, on 11-of-15 shooting, and 11 rebounds.

Stanley Pringle only had 10 points, but 4 came down the stretch.

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"We came into this expecting to grind it out. Rain Or Shine is really, really good. A tough, grind-out team," said Cone.

"[We had to] grind it out, be as physical as we can, don't back down from anybody and just play Ginebra-style game."

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Cone and co. came into the playoffs as the top seed with a twice-to-beat advantage, while the Painters were the eighth seed.

This, however, did not mean Rain Or Shine would be a pushover.

Mark Borboran fought it out with 13 points for the Elasto Painters, while Jayvee Mocon and Rey Nambatac each had 12 and 10, respectively.

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Rain Or Shine had more steals 8-4 and fast-break points 8-5. The Elasto Painters also scored more free throws (17-of-23) compared to Ginebra's 9-of-17.

"Rain Or Shine is a tough, tough matchup for us. They have been by far the best defensive team out there," said Cone.

"They handled Stanley very, very well. Luckily, Japeth got free and got things done and we were able to pull it out."

Ginebra will take on the winner of the San Miguel-Meralco series in a best-of-5 showdown, which will start on Wednesday.

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