Stephen Holt drained the buzzer-beating three-point shot to lift Barangay Ginebra to a pulse-pounding 99-98 overtime win against a tough as nails Converge team to advance to the PBA Season 50 Philippine Cup semifinals on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Pushed to the brink of eliminations by a young but pesky FiberXers behind rookie Juan Gomez de Liano, Justin Arana, Justine Baltazar and an unlikely gunner in Archie Concepcion, Gin Kings coach Tim Cone had to dig deep into his bag of tricks following the disqualification of veteran guard Scottie Thompson in regulation play and Japeth Aguilar early in overtime due to fouls.
Jeremiah Gray came in to take the spot and drained three free throws with 3.9 seconds to go in regulation play after being fouled by Alec Stockton while going for the three-point shot.
The Filipino-American guard’s three foul shots sent the game to overtime with regulation play ending at 86-86.
In overtime, the FiberXers had the Gin Kings seemingly at the ropes anew with Gomez De Liano scoring six points, including a four-point shot to give his team a 95-89 with 1:39 to go.
But the FiberXers couldn’t finish the job, as they allowed the Gin Kings to close in with rising star RJ Abarrientos making four free throws within a span of 48 seconds.
Gomez De Liano knocked down his own pair of free throws from there to give Converge a 97-93 lead.
But Troy Rosario responded with a triple in the ensuing play, followed by a Baltazar split from the free throw line on a foul by Sonny Estil with eight seconds left.
Cone burned his last time out and diagrammed Ginebra’s final play, which turned out to be Holt’s game-winning triple, that not only knocked Converge out of the first round of the playoffs again for the fourth straight conference, but the victory also vaulted the Gin Kings to the best-of-seven semifinal series against the defending champion San Miguel Beermen.
Abarrientos led Ginebra with 20, including a perfect 10-of-10 from the foul line in a solid followup to his 35-point career effort last Friday.
Thompson finished with 13 points, five rebounds and eight assists before fouling out.
Jayson David also had 13, while Rosario finished with 12 and 14 boards.
Gomez De Liano ended his first conference as a rookie with 25 points to lead Converge, while Concepcion added 18.
Arana and Baltazar registered double-double numbers of 15 and 13 rebounds, as well 13 and 20 boards, respectively.
