JAY R. GOTERA
Saudi Gazette
MANILA — The GlobalPort Batang Pier pulled off a stunning 84-83 overtime victory over the Barangay Ginebra Kings in their knockout quarterfinals clash on Sunday night to advance to the semifinals of the PBA Philippine Cup.
GlobalPort will be squaring off with the top-seeded Alaska Aces in a best-of-7 semifinal series that begins on Jan. 5, 2016. It will be the first time that GlobalPort will be playing in the semifinals since the club joined the league in 2012.
Sunday’s game was decided after the final buzzer sounded as Barangay Ginebra contested the referees’ no-call. With GlobalPort up by a point, 84-83, with eight seconds to go, GlobalPort’s Stanley Pringle received the ball near the halfcourt line off the inbound pass. He was trapped by two Ginebra defenders and held on to the ball for more than five seconds as shown by television replays before jumping into the air to pass the ball to a teammate as the final buzzer sounded.
Ginebra team officials contended that the referees should have called a ball hogging violation on Pringle that would have given possession to the Kings with still about two seconds left, giving Ginebra a chance to turn the game around. But no such call came from the referees.
Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone and his team lingered on the court long after the buzzer sounded pleading for a ruling. But PBA Commissioner Chito Narvasa pointed out later that a ball-hogging violation in the last seconds of the game was not among the infractions that called for an automatic review by table officials, thus upholding the referees’ no-call.
Ginebra has until 12 noon of Monday to put the result of the match under protest.
GlobalPort’s stellar backcourt duo of Pringle and Terrence Romeo once again formed the spearhead of their team’s offense. Pringle finished with a team-high 25 points and eight rebounds while Romeo posted 23 points, five rebounds and a team-high five assists.
Jay Washington added 13 points, including three triples, while former Ginebra guard Joseph Yeo had 11 for the Batang Pier.
GlobalPort also got a big game from Billy Mamaril, another former Ginebra player, who banked in a basket that tied the game, 74-all, with 4.1 seconds left in regulation. Mamaril then blocked a shot by LA Tenorio on the other end to force overtime.
Greg Slaughter led Ginebra with 25 points on top of 18 rebounds. Tenorio added 18 markers while Joe Devance chipped in 12.
Japeth Aguilar scored just six points but four of them came in the extra period, including the basket that cut GlobalPort’s lead to 83-84 with eight seconds left.
Game Monday: Talk N Text Tropang Texters vs. Rain or Shine Elasto Painters (knockout quarterfinals).
