Clutch Tenorio trey lifts Ginebra to sudden death Game 7 vs SMB
At A Glance
- The battle-scarred veteran stepped up big time and nailed the go-ahead triple with 3.1 seconds left to lift Barangay Ginebra to a nail-biting 88-87 victory in Game 6 of their PBA Season 49 Philippine Cup semifinals series at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Sunday, July 6.
Miracles do happen.
And for Ginebra, it came in the form of a clutch three-pointer from LA Tenorio.
The battle-scarred veteran stepped up big time and nailed the go-ahead triple with 3.1 seconds left to lift Barangay Ginebra to a nail-biting 88-87 victory in Game 6 of their PBA Season 49 Philippine Cup semifinals series at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Sunday, July 6.
Down by two, 85-87, with 10 seconds left, Scottie Thompson found Tenorio lurking at the three-point line for the kick-out pass. The veteran, who earlier passed on a wide-open trey, took the shot this time and drilled the biggest basket of the series over the outstretched arms of Jericho Cruz.
San Miguel still got a decent shot on the other end but CJ Perez missed the potential game-winner from the four-point line.
With the Kings seemingly in disarray in the final frame, Tenorio displayed his veteran poise and scored all of his 11 points to pump life to the fight of Ginebra which trailed by as many as 16 points.
“We turned to our veteran, our leader, and he made the big plays down the stretch. It's something we haven't been able to do in this series. But LA's presence out there just allowed us to make big plays down the stretch and obviously the big shot,” said Ginebra head coach Tim Cone.
“Like I said, miracles do happen. He's made shots like that throughout his whole career. And I've been the beneficiary of those shots,” he added.
Thompson, who issued the pass to Tenorio, flirted with a triple-double of 17 points, 16 rebounds and eight assists while Japeth Aguilar added 16.
The clutch Tenorio triple also wasted the best scoring night in the semis for June Mar Fajardo who posted 21 points to go with 16 rebounds and five assists. The 6-foot-10 center, however, had crucial missed free throws late which could have given the Beermen a four-point lead.