Ginebra limits Converge's Franklin to four points, notches 4th straight win; Meralco keeps bid for playoff bonus alive

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel cruised to its fourth straight victory after taking down the Converge FiberXers, 120-101, on Sunday in the 2023 PBA Governors' Cup at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.

It was almost a wire-to-wire win for the conference's defending champs as Converge led only in the early parts of the first quarter and Ginebra never looked back since.

The two teams' imports, however, had a clear contrast in their performances.

Ginebra's Justin Brownlee posted his usual double-double with 28 points and 10 boards, but the usually explosive Jamaal Franklin was limited to just four points in 35 minutes of play.

Jamie Malonzo led the way for Ginebra with 29 points and eight rebounds while Christian Standhardinger, like Brownlee, also had a double-double with 28 points and 12 boards. Ginebra improved to 7-2 in the standings ahead of their match against Terrafirma on Wednesday.

Maverick Ahanmisi led the locals with 24 points in the loss which put them to 6-5.

Earlier, the Meralco Bolts, which played without the suspended Allein Maliksi, defeated the Phoenix Super LPG Fuelmasters, 92-86.

The Bolts capped their elimination campaign with a 7-4 card, enough to stay in the twice-to-beat hunt as league leaders TNT, San Miguel, and Ginebra still have two more games to play, while NLEX is at 7-3. The win also denied Phoenix (4-7) at least an outright quarterfinals berth.

The scores:

First game:

Meralco 92 – McDaniels 19, Black 18, Banchero 13, Hodge 12, Quinto 9, Newsome 8, Almazan 7, Caram 3, Pasaol 3, Jose 0.

Phoenix 86 – Maxwell 29, Serrano 20, Perkins 13, Tio 7, Jazul 6, Camacho 3, Muyang 2, Manganti 2, Mocon2, Garcia 2, Lalata 0, Alejandro 0.

Quarters: 23-22, 47-49, 73-68, 92-86.

Second game:

Ginebra 120 – Malonzo 29, Brownlee 28, Standhardinger 28, Gray 16, Thompson 5, Pinto 4, R.Aguilar 4, Pringle 3, Onwubere 3, Pessumal 0, Dillinger 0.

Converge 101 – Ahanmisi 24, Teng 12, Murrell 11, Arana 11, Stockton 10, Tratter 9, Racal 7, Balanza 7, Franklin 4, Ebona 3, Tolomia 3.

Quarters: 29-24, 64-55, 93-78, 120-101.

—JMB, GMA Integrated News