Bay Area Dragons bucked the absence of import Andrew Nicholson and pulled off a stunning 94-86 win over the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings on Friday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.
With Nicholson sitting out the contest due to a sprained ankle, Kobey Lam took it upon himself to carry Bay Area’s scoring load, firing a game-high 30 points as the Dragons evened the 47th PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals at 2-2.
Nicholson hurt his ankle in Bay Area’s 82-89 loss in Game 3 last Wednesday and for a while it looked like his absence would be too much for the Dragons to overcome.
The Kings surged to an eight-point lead at the bend, 46-38, but the Dragons simply refused to cave in.
Bay Area moved within 60-61 at the end of the third period and went on to steal the win behind Lam’s endgame scoring spurt.
Lam scored 13 of the Dragons’ last 18 points as the battle-tested uncharacteristocally Kings sputtered at the finish.
Glen Yang and Songwei Zhu provided Lam the much-needed support by scoring 18 points each.
Justin Brownlee paced Ginebra with 23 points, while Scottie Thompson chipped in 18 markers.
Japeth Aguilar added 12 points while LA Tenorio contributed 11.
The loss spoiled Brownlee and Thompson’s winning of the Best Import and Best Player of the Conference awards, respectively.
THE SCORES
BAY AREA 94 – Lam 30, Yang 18, Zhu 18, Liu 8, Reid 8, Blankley 7, Song 3, Zheng 2, Ewing 0, Ju 0.
GINEBRA 86 – Brownlee 23, Thompson 18, J.Aguilar 12, Tenorio 11, Pringle 9, Standhardinger 8, Malonzo 5, Mariano 0, Gray 0, Pinto 0.
QUARTERS: 19-19, 38-46, 60-61, 94-86.
Photo courtesy of PBA Media Bureau
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