Tit for tat, and just like that, the title series for the PBA Governors’ Cup between Barangay Ginebra and Meralco is now down to a best-of-three.
The Gin Kings were the ones who got sterling performances from two of their veterans on Friday night as they completed a come-from-behind 88-86 win over the Bolts to make it a 2-2 series for the season-closing conference before close to 18,000 fans at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
Jay-Jay Helterbrand was the first to step up when the chips were down for the Kings, making all of his 11 points inside the first 6:14 of the fourth as he singlehandedly rallied Ginebra back from 74-58 down at the end of the third period.
And it came on his 40th birthday, which he celebrated with a performance to remember.
Mark Caguioa, another former MVP, had all of his four fourth quarter points in that run, making coach Tim Cone declare them as the saviors of their series.
“They played with much energy and I don’t feel like I should be here (for the interview),” Cone told reporters. “Jay and Mark should be here. They are great players and they make up for lousy coaching. They pretty much saved our series.”
Ginebra’s locals were practically non-existent in Game 3, when Meralco veterans Reynel Hugnatan and Jimmy Alapag keyed a 107-103 win.
In the series-tying triumph, Ginebra got just 10 points from import Justin Brownlee and had the locals doing most of the damage, with Helterbrand clearly standing out from the pack.
Lost in the brilliance of Helterbrand and Caguioa was the great endgame that Joe Devance also had.
Devance, who has followed Cone from Alaska to San Mig and here at Ginebra, scored the final six points for the Kings, capped by a very difficult turnaround jumper under heavy pressure, which beat the shotclock for the marginal basket with 25 seconds left.
Meralco had a chance to forge overtime but Chris Newsome put up a bad shot at the buzzer and missed terribly.
Game 5 is slated Sunday, weather permitting, as a big storm was forecast to hit Metro Manila. The league is readying itself to reschedule the fifth game for Wednesday should the storm, named Karen, hit the country hard.
Meanwhile, June Mar Fajardo of San Miguel Beer wrote league history earlier in the night after winning a third straight MVP trophy in elaborate rites institutionalized as the Leo Awards before tip-off of Game 4.
The 6-foot-10 franchise player of the Beermen became the first player to achieve the feat and moved within another MVP of equaling the record jointly held by all-time greats Alvin Patrimonio and Ramon Fernandez.
With the exception of Bogs Adornado who won the award in the league’s first two seasons, Fajardo, who comes from the sleepy agricultural town of Pinamungahan in Cebu, became the fastest player to win three MVPs, being just in his fourth year.
Adornado, the deadshot who played for Crispa and Utex in a glorious career, also has three MVPs.
“I truly am blessed,” Fajardo addressed the huge crowd in Filipino at the Big Dome in his very deep voice. “I can’t ask for anything more. I am very happy but sad at the same time because I failed to lead my team to the (Governors’ Cup) Finals.”
Winning the MVP automatically put Fajardo in the first Mythical Team with Calvin Abueva of Alaska, San Miguel teammate Arwind Santos, Terrence Romeo of GlobalPort and TNT Katropa’s Jason Castro, who finished second in the MVP derby.
After averaging close to 20 points and a shade over 12 rebounds a contest, Fajardo was the runaway winner in the Statistical Points race and then got an overwhelming share of the players’, media and league votes to total 3,079 points.
Castro, the Governors’ Cup Best Player, had 2,242, with Abueva tallying 1,501.
Chris Newsome of Meralco picked up the Rookie of the Year award after playing with a lot of brilliance in the latter half of the season. He handily defeated TNT’s Troy Rosario, the second overall pick, and Barangay Ginebra’s Scottie Thompson.
Ginebra’s LA Tenorio and Japeth Aguilar, San Miguel’s Alex Cabagnot and NLEX’ Asi Taulava and Sean Anthony were named to the Mythical Second Team.
The other big citations of the night were those who made up the All-Defensive Team, with Star’s Marc Pingris leading the way, named for the eighth straight time. Gabe Norwood, Aguilar, Ping Exciminiano of Alaska and Chris Ross of San Miguel were the others in the list.
In related developments, Star, a day after dealing away former two-time MVP James Yap to Rain or Shine for Paul Lee, named Chito Victolero as its new coach, taking over from the underachieving Jason Webb.
Lee was the second player that Rain or Shine gave away in trades on Thursday after shipping JR Quinahan to GlobalPort for the veteran Jay Washington.
The Gin Kings were the ones who got sterling performances from two of their veterans on Friday night as they completed a come-from-behind 88-86 win over the Bolts to make it a 2-2 series for the season-closing conference before close to 18,000 fans at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
Jay-Jay Helterbrand was the first to step up when the chips were down for the Kings, making all of his 11 points inside the first 6:14 of the fourth as he singlehandedly rallied Ginebra back from 74-58 down at the end of the third period.
And it came on his 40th birthday, which he celebrated with a performance to remember.
Mark Caguioa, another former MVP, had all of his four fourth quarter points in that run, making coach Tim Cone declare them as the saviors of their series.
“They played with much energy and I don’t feel like I should be here (for the interview),” Cone told reporters. “Jay and Mark should be here. They are great players and they make up for lousy coaching. They pretty much saved our series.”
Ginebra’s locals were practically non-existent in Game 3, when Meralco veterans Reynel Hugnatan and Jimmy Alapag keyed a 107-103 win.
In the series-tying triumph, Ginebra got just 10 points from import Justin Brownlee and had the locals doing most of the damage, with Helterbrand clearly standing out from the pack.
Lost in the brilliance of Helterbrand and Caguioa was the great endgame that Joe Devance also had.
Devance, who has followed Cone from Alaska to San Mig and here at Ginebra, scored the final six points for the Kings, capped by a very difficult turnaround jumper under heavy pressure, which beat the shotclock for the marginal basket with 25 seconds left.
Meralco had a chance to forge overtime but Chris Newsome put up a bad shot at the buzzer and missed terribly.
Game 5 is slated Sunday, weather permitting, as a big storm was forecast to hit Metro Manila. The league is readying itself to reschedule the fifth game for Wednesday should the storm, named Karen, hit the country hard.
Meanwhile, June Mar Fajardo of San Miguel Beer wrote league history earlier in the night after winning a third straight MVP trophy in elaborate rites institutionalized as the Leo Awards before tip-off of Game 4.
The 6-foot-10 franchise player of the Beermen became the first player to achieve the feat and moved within another MVP of equaling the record jointly held by all-time greats Alvin Patrimonio and Ramon Fernandez.
With the exception of Bogs Adornado who won the award in the league’s first two seasons, Fajardo, who comes from the sleepy agricultural town of Pinamungahan in Cebu, became the fastest player to win three MVPs, being just in his fourth year.
Adornado, the deadshot who played for Crispa and Utex in a glorious career, also has three MVPs.
“I truly am blessed,” Fajardo addressed the huge crowd in Filipino at the Big Dome in his very deep voice. “I can’t ask for anything more. I am very happy but sad at the same time because I failed to lead my team to the (Governors’ Cup) Finals.”
Winning the MVP automatically put Fajardo in the first Mythical Team with Calvin Abueva of Alaska, San Miguel teammate Arwind Santos, Terrence Romeo of GlobalPort and TNT Katropa’s Jason Castro, who finished second in the MVP derby.
After averaging close to 20 points and a shade over 12 rebounds a contest, Fajardo was the runaway winner in the Statistical Points race and then got an overwhelming share of the players’, media and league votes to total 3,079 points.
Castro, the Governors’ Cup Best Player, had 2,242, with Abueva tallying 1,501.
Chris Newsome of Meralco picked up the Rookie of the Year award after playing with a lot of brilliance in the latter half of the season. He handily defeated TNT’s Troy Rosario, the second overall pick, and Barangay Ginebra’s Scottie Thompson.
Ginebra’s LA Tenorio and Japeth Aguilar, San Miguel’s Alex Cabagnot and NLEX’ Asi Taulava and Sean Anthony were named to the Mythical Second Team.
The other big citations of the night were those who made up the All-Defensive Team, with Star’s Marc Pingris leading the way, named for the eighth straight time. Gabe Norwood, Aguilar, Ping Exciminiano of Alaska and Chris Ross of San Miguel were the others in the list.
In related developments, Star, a day after dealing away former two-time MVP James Yap to Rain or Shine for Paul Lee, named Chito Victolero as its new coach, taking over from the underachieving Jason Webb.
Lee was the second player that Rain or Shine gave away in trades on Thursday after shipping JR Quinahan to GlobalPort for the veteran Jay Washington.
