Barangay Ginebra San Miguel is moving on from its Game 4 loss to the San Miguel Beermen, at least according to Tim Cone. But he still couldn’t resist taking a swipe at the officiating at the end of regulation.
Ginebra Gives Up Third-Quarter Storm
Game 4 was looking like Ginebra’s for the taking. The crowd darlings had played an excellent first half and entered intermission ahead, 55-41. That lead even ballooned to 61-44 at the 10:19 mark of the third on a Jordan Murphy basket.
Ginebra then got outscored 43-12 the rest of the way in a 46-18 third quarter that saw San Miguel zoom ahead, 87-73, at the end of three.
“I honestly don’t remember any time in my career—that’s 35 years, 36 years of coaching,” Cone said of the third-quarter storm San Miguel cooked up. “But they’re a great team. We knew they were going to come back, and they came back a little harder than we thought.”
That 28-point turnaround in the third was arguably the worst in Tim Cone’s decorated career, reminiscent of the 39-12 third quarter Ginebra surrendered to the Meralco Bolts in Game 4 of the 2016 PBA Governors’ Cup Finals.
Tim Cone Rues Noncall in Failed Comeback
In that crucial Game 4 10 years ago, Ginebra rallied in the fourth quarter behind Mark Caguioa and Jayjay Helterbrand and notched a series-tying win. On Friday, history seemed to be repeating itself as the crowd darlings cut a 97-78 deficit to three a couple of times—once at 103-100 and the other at 105-102 on a pair of freebies from Scottie Thompson.
In need of a stop with under 30 seconds left, Ginebra appeared to have forced George King into a traveling violation on a hard trap in the backcourt. Only it didn’t, as Thompson himself was whistled for a foul that left Tim Cone livid and scampering toward the officials to express his displeasure. And he was none too pleased even after the game.
“We worked our butt off to get back into the game. We worked really hard. It was really hard to try and come back because we were all so disappointed,” Cone told reporters. “It was really hard to turn that game back around. And then we do, and we get killed on that call. I mean, it just shouldn’t have happened. Down the stretch like that, the referee’s got to be better.”
Tim Cone is right. The officiating needs to be better, and that goes for both sides. But, to be fair, replays also showed Thompson might have pushed King in the back on that contentious play—something Cone wouldn’t have seen from his vantage point.
Time to Move On
Disappointed as they are, Tim Cone and the rest of Ginebra will need to stop complaining about the officiating and refocus for Game 5.
“Bottom line is, it’s tied up, 2-2,” Cone said. “We move forward. Get ready for the next one.”
The next one is on Tuesday, November 10, at the Ynares Center in Antipolo. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m.
