For some time, Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone was worried at how his wards would take the huge 49-point beating against San Miguel, noting that the loss may have shaken their confidence.

His fears were short-lived.

The Kings made sure to have a response from the huge setback – an emphatic one at that – taking down the Phoenix Fuel Masters, 112-96, to not only get their bid back on track but also formally clinch their ticket to the playoffs.

The veterans in Japeth Aguilar and Scottie Thompson led by example and rallied the team with strong performances in the bounce back win with RJ Abarrientos also following suit with a conference-best showing.

“I was really pleased with the bounce back tonight. I was worried that might shake our confidence a little bit, but it didn’t,” said Cone.

“Guys came out, I thought, really got back to basics, really started to do their thing and we got control of the game early and kept it the whole way,” he added.

Abarrientos led the way with 24 points while Aguilar and Thompson, who both led the Ginebra’s scoring onslaught in the opening frame, wound up with 21 and 20, respectively.

Apparently, Cone never really needed to light the fire in his charges ahead of the contest as the players themselves were eager to bury the memories of their loss to the Beermen, which also turned out to be the worst loss in the Kings’ franchise history and in the coaching career of Cone.

“I don’t think I had to fire them up very much because the game we came off against San Miguel, we were all disappointed with that game. Basically, we’re ashamed of that game so for us to come back, we were really motivated to come back and play a better game,” Cone pointed out.

“Para sa amin sa mga players we just need to move on after that loss di naman sa sinasabi ko na di namin sinseryoso yung 49 point loss namin pero for me we need to move forward lang,” said Abarrientos.

While the loss to SMB is certainly something Cone and the Kings didn’t want to go through, the veteran coach understood that it was all part of the growing pains and an experience they have to overcome if they want to become a tougher team especially with the playoffs now just around the corner.