DID Ginebra coach Tim Cone work doubly hard to motivate the Kings after their humiliating 49-point loss to the San Miguel Beermen the last time out?
A known master motivator, Cone did not — his charges took it upon themselves to atone for that historic 82-131 beatdown five nights back.
“I don’t think I had to fire them up very much because the game we came off against San Miguel, we were all disappointed with that game,” Cone said. “Basically, we’re ashamed of that game so for us to come back, we were really motivated to come back and play a better game.”
Cone spoke after Ginebra dismantled Phoenix 112-96 last Wednesday night in Group B of the PBA Governors’ Cup.
The pro league’s winningest tactician initially had qualms that the embarrassing loss would dishearten the Kings, but they refused to wilt after his and the team’s worst setback in franchise history and more importantly improved to 6-3 and gained a quarterfinals berth in the season-opening tourney.
“I was really pleased with the bounce back tonight. I was worried that might shake our confidence a little bit, but it didn’t,” Cone said. “The guys came out, I thought, really got back to basics, really started to do their thing.
“We got control of the game early and kept it the whole way. There were moments that weren’t pretty, but for the most part, we played a solid game.”
Ace rookie RJ Abarrientos sizzled with a game-high 24 points, to go with five rebounds and five assists, for Ginebra while Japeth Aguilar chipped in 21 markers, eight boards and four dimes.
Former MVP Scottie Thompson also had 20 points, five caroms, and six feeds while import Justin Brownlee and Maverick Ahanmisi added 13 and 12, respectively, as the Kings sent the Fuel Masters packing.
Phoenix came off a breakthrough 119-114 triumph over Blackwater last Sunday but fell to 1-8 and failed to make up for a 101-110 defeat when they first met two weeks ago.
“Para sa amin, sa mga players we just need to move on after that loss,” Abarrientos said. “Hindi naman sa sinasabi ko na hindi namin sineseryoso iyong 49-point loss namin pero for me we need to move forward lang.”
Cone said his wards are setting their sights on their final group phase outing against NLEX on Sunday, Sept. 22, in a bid to bolster their drive for a top two finish.
“We’re always on the philosophy of going out and trying to win every game, whether it’s non-bearing or not. Generally, right now, if you look at the other side, TNT is playing the best and you certainly don’t want to play TNT,” he said. “We want to try and get as high as we can, so we play the team in the lowest part of the standing on the other side. That’s just logical and something we have to do.
“We really don’t control it as much as we’d like to so we just have to go out and win our last game and make our record the best it can go.”
Jason Perkins paced the Fuel Masters with 18 points and three rebounds while Sean Manganti added 18 and two.
Reinforcement Brandone Francis and freshman Kai Ballungay also contributed 17 and 16 markers, respectively for Phoenix.
With the pain of the forgettable setback gone, Ginebra resumes its mission of reaching the Promised Land anew.