Playing sick in a championship series is hard enough. Doing so and having to guard the relentless Rondae Hollis-Jefferson of the TNT Tropang Giga is torture. Yet Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s Stephen Holt did it anyway in Games 1 through 3.
All things even, Holt acquitted himself pretty well in those games when he chose to play instead of taking a sick leave, norming 11.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.7 steals. However, he shot poorly from the field, going 9-for-29 overall and 2-for-10 from downtown—presumably because he was spending whatever energy he had left trying to contain the prolific Hollis-Jefferson.
But for a team that relies on pinpoint sniping, 31% from the field just doesn’t cut it.
Hard to blame Holt, though, as shadowing an import is hard enough as it is. Doing so while sick is a close-to-impossible task. Again, Holt did so anyway, and he admitted it took away from his offense.
“That’s just been the biggest challenge for me in this series. It takes a lot of energy on the defensive end mentally and physically just to lock in on that match up individually—one-on-one defense but also within the team scheme,” he told reporters after Ginebra’s Game 4 victory. “That’s kind of taken away a little bit of my aggressiveness offensively. The first three games, I cost us some open shots that I knew I needed to shoot…”
Up against a team that plays elite defense, Ginebra certainly didn’t need Holt passing up open shots.
Holt Battles Through Adversity, Helps Ginebra Level Series
Holt could’ve shrunk from the moment, especially after RHJ dropped 37 on him in TNT’s Game 2 win. He was sick—badly, according to Ginebra coach Tim Cone—and it was the perfect excuse.
The 6-foot-2 Fil-Am had other plans in Game 4. He did not pass up those good looks—and then some. Holt played his usual tenacious defense on Hollis-Jefferson, forcing the reigning Best Import to tough shots and getting 5 steals. But, equally important, Holt finally broke out of his shooting slump in the second half, where he scored 15 of his 18 points—including 9 in the third when TNT cut a 12-point Ginebra lead to 69-65.
“Today, I didn’t pass up any of those shots. I was able to make some big-time shots. My teammates found me when they needed to and I did my job to be aggressive and put more points,” Holt said.
The last of those open looks was a trey ball from the right corner, and Holt rose up took it confidently, and put Game 4 away for the crowd darlings, who have crawled back from an 0-2 deficit to level the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals at two games apiece.
Holt’s secret, it appears, is to keep a level head even when the going gets tough, as it did in Games 1 and 2.
“At the end of the day, it’s just my competitive spirit. I just gotta continue to show leadership, continue to lead on the defensive end, don’t get discouraged when Rondae hits a tough shot,” Holt added. “He started the game hot, he hit some threes. But we can never put our heads down at all. That’s the biggest thing about our group, our resilience and our commitment to try and get back to how we want to play…”
After hanging 106 points on that TNT defense, it looks like Ginebra is back to playing Ginebra basketball again. And the Barangay can thank Holt for sticking with it.
