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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider Governors' Cup three-peat not meant to be but Cone pleased with Kings' growth

Governors' Cup three-peat not meant to be but Cone pleased with Kings' growth

Published Apr 22, 2023 05:46 am
If Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone would have it, a three-peat in the Governors’ Cup would be a fitting conclusion to a splendid conference despite a number of adversities.

*Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone suffers his first Finals loss in import-laden conference with Ginebra (Noel Pabalete)

*

But it wasn’t meant to be. For one, the Kings couldn’t hurdle the only challenge that was separating them and a third-straight title – a tough and formidable TNT Tropang Giga team. The defending champions gave it their all but the basketball Gods were simply not on their side this time as a couple of bad breaks during the tightly-contested series just dashed all the hopes for Ginebra to lift its second title this season. “We had our chances but that’s some bad luck, Justin’s food poisoning and that shot of Mikey Williams off the backboard was a back breaker,” said Cone in the aftermath of the 97-93 Game 6 loss that ended his team’s two year reign. The Kings dropped the pivotal Game 5 with Brownlee exiting the game in the second half due to a severe case of food poisoning. He managed to return in Game 6 and tried to will Ginebra back into the series with his 29 points while his local supporting cast of Jamie Malonzo, Scottie Thompson and Christian Standhardinger all did their jobs with their own share of big games. “We would have loved to win this one . We would have loved to win back-to-back but it wasn’t meant to be,” quipped Cone. But TNT, given a legitimate chance to finally end a 27-year Governors’ Cup title drought, made sure to not let the opportunity slip away as it rode the shoulders of Mikey Williams and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. Williams even sizzled for 38 points built on nine triple – none bigger than the one he drilled off the board and from the top of the key to give TNT the lead for good with 1:15 minutes left. “They played really well, they played all the way through. They certainly deserve it more than we did,” said Cone, who suffered his first Finals loss in an import-laden conference with Ginebra. “Well it’s a tough coaching staff to go against with Jojo (Lastimosa) and Chot (Reyes) and Josh (Reyes) and the Serbian coach (Lale Goronovic).. For me personally it was a tough one to go through especially with these guys and going against them,” Cone praised TNT’s coaching staff. Still, Cone was pleased with the growth shown by the Kings throughout the conference especially with the journey they had including the situation with team captain LA Tenorio. “What can I say? It's a great conference. We went through a lot as a team this whole time the journey was arduous. We're gonna remember it for many reasons because of LA and the courage LA showed throughout this whole thing coming into the game being around and it was really inspiring to watch,” explained Cone. “We still got a growth in this team Jamie and Miah are still growing  and Christian had a great conference, Justin is Justin and Scottie is Scottie. We were really pleased with this team. We are looking forward to going into the next one,” he added.

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Baranagay Ginebra Coach Tim Cone
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