Series is far from over – Devance
For the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings, this is the perfect time to prove to all that they are the league’s original ‘never say die’ team.
Down 3-1 in the their PBA Philippine Cup title series with San Miguel, Ginebra forward Joe Devance said it is paramount for them to step up and show the kind of character the team is known for over the last three decades, or since the time of Robert Jaworski.
“We’re never-say-die, so we’ve got to live up to that,” said Devance after the team suffered a 94-85 loss in Game 4 Friday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The setback put the Kings in a must-win situation in order for them to win the championship.
Game 5 of the title duel is set today also at the Big Dome.
Devance is one of the Ginebra players showing what ‘never say die’ is as he continued to take shots to ease the pain on his injured left foot since hurting his plantar fasciitis during the semifinal round.
“We know how to play with our backs against the wall… we just have to come out for Game 5,” said Devance. “We just got to take it game by game. Like I said before, it’s been done.”
“So we can’t just come out here (after Game 4) and put our heads down. It’s not over. They still have (to win) one more game left. So we got to come out here and fight for it.”
“We have a tall hill to climb… see if we can climb it. I have full confidence in this team that we can do it. It has been done before. We got to have faith. We have to have faith in each other, and we’ll just keep on playing till the last second,” added Devance.
In the history of the PBA, only five teams have rallied from a 1-3 deficits, including two in a finals series, and Ginebra did the trick first in 1991 against Shell in the Reinforced Conference.
The last franchise to do it, however, was San Miguel, which actually fought back from 0-3 and won in historic fashion, as it became the first team to win a series – and a title – after falling behind to Alaska in the 2016 Philippine Cup.
LA Tenorio, the veteran Ginebra point guard, is confident too that it can be done, and they can do it too just like the Ginebra team did in 1991 and SMB achieved last season in this conference.
“Well nagawa nila, so kaya rin naman namin yun,” Tenorio said.
“Again, we just have to get the game on Sunday. Yun lang iisipin namin. We’re not looking forward, we’re not looking at tying the series right away, ‘di naman namin mata-tie yung series kung ‘di namin maipapanalo on Sunday.”
“Well, still the same… ‘di naman kami na-out (after losing Game 4). Hindi pa tapos. We still have a chance. We just have to do it the right way. One game at a time,” said Tenorio.