Kings land first salvo

MANILA, Philippines — Just when their Game 1 effort was about to burn away, RJ Abarrientos and Justin Brownlee put out the fire for Barangay Ginebra.

And with Abarrientos hitting back-to-back four-point shots and Brownlee nailing the dagger jumper, the Gin Kings salvaged a 102-100 opening victory over TNT in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals last night.

What started as a dominant performance that saw the crowd darlings take an 18-point lead early nearly ended disastrously as the defending champion Tropang 5G wrested the driver’s seat a couple of times in the stretch, 95-92 and 97-96.

Fortunately for them, Abarrientos knocked down those long bombs to bring the Gin Kings back ahead each time.

RR Pogoy knotted the count at 100-100 with a big-time triple and then Brownlee did what he does best at this time of the tournament, knocking down the go-ahead with a Jordanesque fadeaway jump shot over TNT counterpart Chris McCullough.

“Kay Lord ‘yun, sa kanya ‘yung tira na ‘yun,” said Abarrientos of his big-time four-balls that kept the sputtering Gin Kings alive in the match witnessed by 11,447-strong crowd at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Coach Tim Cone’s crew heaved a sigh of relief after averting disaster.

“I wasn’t happy about the fourth quarter. We lost control of the game in the fourth and we kind of lost our way. RJ just hit some big shots that got us back to the game,” said Cone.

Abarrientos rifled in 24 to pace the Gin Kings as Brownlee posted 23 points and eight rebounds and Troy Rosario and Scottie Thompson chipped in 16 and 15, respectively.

McCullough (25) and Pogoy (22) led TNT, which wore a “1” patch on their white jerseys in honor of its injured import Bol Bol.

Rey Nambatac contributed 19, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser 12 and Calvin Oftana also 12.