Playing with nothing to lose, the all-local Bay Area squad came out with a more spirited performance just when the chips were falling down.
Sans injured import Andrew Nicholson, the Dragons spewed fire with Kobey Lam, Glenn Yang and Zhu Songwei putting up an inspired performance to pull off a 94-86 triumph over Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in Game 4 of their Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven finals series last night at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Bay Area watched Ginebra stalwarts Scottie Thompson and import Justin Brownlee collect the individual awards prior to tip off, but it was business as usual as it showed up with only one thing in mind — to win.
And winning was exactly what the Dragons did as collectively as it brought its A-game with its import, Nicholson, sidelined by a badly sprained ankle.
With their other reinforcement, Myles Powell, still nursing an acute hyperextension injury on his toe, the Dragons relied not just on anyone, but everyone.
Lam his most productive output in the series, sizzling for 30 points on an explosive 8-of-14 shooting from the field while Yang and Zu tallied 18 markers apiece but were more determined in their face-off with Ginebra’s gold standards in Thompson and Brownlee.
Game 5 is set on Sunday with both teams trying to break the deadlock and move closer to winning the mid-season tournament crown.
More importantly for the Dragons, they need to make a decision whether to request for the inclusion of Powell or stick with their all-local line up in the highly-crucial encounter.
The Scores:
BAY AREA (94) — Lam 30, Yang 18, Zhu 18, Liu 8, Reid 8, Blankley 7, Song 3, Zheng 2, Ewing 0, Ju 0.
GINEBRA (86) — Brownlee 23, Thompson 18, J. Aguilar 12, Tenorio 11, Pringle 9, Standhardinger 8, Malonzo 5, Mariano 0, Gray 0, Pinto 0.
QUARTERS: 19-19, 38-46, 60-61, 94-86.
