Gin Kings brace for formidable Beermen frontline

MANILA, Philippines -- Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone underscored the “tough mountain to climb” as they face a frontline of reigning PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo and import Bennie Boatwright in the semifinals of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.

The dominant Fajardo and the sweet-shooting Boatwright give the Beermen a massive one-two punch in the frontcourt.

In Friday's semis-clinching win over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, Boatwright once again carried the offensive load for San Miguel with 41 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

Fajardo, for his part, had 13 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block.

Cone, after stamping Ginebra’s semifinal ticket at the expense of the NorthPort Batang Pier also on Friday, acknowledged the matchup problems that the Beermen frontcourt displays.

“I do know that Bennie Boatwright is a tremendous import. and anytime you can get a tremendous import matching with June Mar, it's a tough mountain to climb,” Cone told reporters.

“They're scoring in bunches and they're scoring a lot of points. They're really dictating the game,” he added.

Boatwright is one of the highest-scoring imports of this conference, averaging 40.3 points, 13.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game.

Aside from the two, the Beermen also play CJ Perez as the small forward in the starting roster.

Despite this, Ginebra’s forwards and center are no pushovers.

The Gin Kings have import Tony Bishop, the bruising Christian Standhardinger and the 3-and-D Jamie Malonzo.

Standhardinger is the leading candidate for the Best Player of the Conference award.

The team also has the athletic 6-foot-9 Japeth Aguilar coming off the bench.

“We just gotta find a way to make them uncomfortable and try to do it through three games. that's really the bottomline for us,” Cone said.

“So, we have a couple days to really sink our teeth into them and figure out how we wanna proceed,” he added.