Brownlee a no show for Gins in final opener

IN the PBA, as in any other basketball league, no lead is safe. Game 1 of the ongoing PBA Governors’ Cup Finals on Friday is the latest proof.

Ginebra San Miguel, the crowd’s perennial sweetheart, was always leading the way, even building double-digit margins with ridiculous consistency against Meralco.

And even as Meralco had retaken the lead, Ginebra would always fight back and grab the driver’s seat in no time.

As when LA Tenorio, playing the game of his life as Ginebra’s fiery fire hydrant, drove for an unlikely bank shot to not win it for the Gins but tie the score at 102 for overtime.

Then, when pundits put premium anew on Ginebra’s patented neversay-die stance to reappear in the extension, they were dead wrong.

The Gins, who barged to the finals at the expense of defending champion San Miguel Beer in a shocking Game 5 meltdown for the Beermen, could only score four points in overtime’s first three minutes and that was it. Goodbye Game 1.

Meralco, sinking shot after shot against a suddenly lethargic Ginebra, went on to score a 114-109 overtime victory for a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven title showdown.

Going to Sunday’s Game 2, Tenorio is still energized with his 36-point effort, a career-best in his eight-year stint in the league.

And, if only to remind, Tenorio’s feat sent an oblique message to the Gilas coaches’ utterly insane decision to dump him in the last Fiba-Olympic Qualifier Cup in Manila.

And, had Gin import Justin Brownlee not only scored a mere 17 points as compared to the gamehigh 46 of Meralco reinforcement Allan Durham, Tenorio’s stellar effort might not have gone to waste.

Against the Beermen, Brownlee, whom Ginebra coach Tim Cone likens to his former import Sean Chambers in the Grand Slam days of his old Alaska team, fired a game-high 26 points and limited June Mar Fajardo to a mere 7 points—all free throws.

So devastating was Brownlee in defense that Fajardo, gunning yet for a third straight MVP, had only one attempt in 36 minutes of play. Miss.

But in Friday’s Game 1, Brownlee was reduced to a helpless kitten by Durham’s ferocity, both on point-production and rebounding chores.

Thus, if Brownlee bombs out anew in Game 2, make that 2-0 for Meralco. Even if Tenorio fires 100 points.