Games on Friday
(Ynares Center Antipolo)
5:15 p.m. – Phoenix vs Rain or Shine
7:30 p.m. – Ginebra vs Blackwater
Team Standings
Group A
*NLEX 9-3
*San Miguel 9-3
*Converge 8-4
*TNT 7-5
Terrafirma 5-7
Titan 2-10
Macau 2-10
Group B
*Magnolia 7-3
*Rain or Shine 5-4
*Phoenix 5-4
Ginebra 4-5
Meralco 4-6
Blackwater 3-6
*clinched quarterfinals
IT IS a crucial PBA Governors’ Cup duel against Blackwater that looks all too familiar for Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone.
Last game of the group stage, two ways to advance to the playoffs.
Seal it with a win. Or at the very least, get the Last 8 ticket by emerging on top of a potential three-way tie at 4-6 with Meralco and the Bossing (3-6) after tiebreak.
Thanks to their +30 points differential against the Bolts (+7) and Pat Aquino’s Bossing (-37), the Gin Kings can still afford to drop Friday’s Group B windup at Ynares Center-Antipolo and move forward — as long as the losing margin won’t reach 24.
Otherwise, it would drag Mr. Cone and his bunch to second among the three, allowing Meralco to catch the last bus to the crossover quarters instead.
For the Bossing to overtake the two in a tiebreaker, they must to beat Ginebra by a whopping 45 points at 7:30 p.m.
Waiting in the wings is NLEX, which topped Group A at 9-3.
This quotient tiebreak situation’s similarity with Gilas Pilipinas’ past international sortie isn’t lost on Mr. Cone.
“Well, I don’t really want to talk about quotient because I’ve had some bad experiences with it,” said the veteran mentor.
He and the Nationals faced the same in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament against Georgia in Latvia in 2024. They took a 94-96 loss but still made it to the semis, having gone under the 36-point loss threshold.
It didn’t pan out in last September’s Asian Games in Nagoya, though. The Nationals needed to beat China or, using the quotient, lose by 37 markers but they fell by 44 (61-105) and crashed out.
Blackwater is no Georgia or China but Mr. Cone expects the Gin Kings to bring their A-game and not take any chances.
“We’re very aware of the quotient and hopefully our guys won’t fool around and will come out and play the game the way we’re supposed to,” he said. “But I’d rather have that quotient than not have that quotient. So, we’ll live with it and do what we can with it.”
Meanwhile, Rain or Shine (5-4) and Phoenix (5-4) close out business in Group B in the 5:15 p.m. first match.
It’s essentially a positioning battle for the two playoffs-bound squads with the No. 2 seeding in the group up for grabs. — Olmin Leyba