Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Rides Sol Mercado's Heroics to Get Their First Win in The Series

Photo by PBA Media Bureau

After being down by 0 to 2 in the series against the Star Hotshots in the first two games of the best of seven semis, The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel finally got their first W after a successful fourth quarter run.

Ginebra dominated most of the quarters, but again found themselves trailing after a huge run by the Hotshots. Paul Lee, the hero of the first two games had a hard time sinking his shots but eventually converted his three pointers during the final stretch.

Sol Mercado, the key player of this game sank three point attempts during the crucial moments of the final quarter along side Japeth Aguilar who surprisingly made a shot from beyond the arc that took the game away from their long time rival Star Hotshots.

With less than two minutes left in the pay off period, Ginebra led with as much as 13 points. Coach Chito Victolero has decided to call the game off by sending his starters back to the bench obviously surrendering from this huge deficit to preserve and prepare his players for game 4 on Wednesday at the Araneta Coliseum.

Barangay Ginebra stayed alive in the series after a possible 3-0 series lead by Star Hotshots. People are not surprised that Ginebra could comeback in the series as they've been to a lot of the same scenarios and eventually emerged victorious.

The scores: 

GINEBRA 73 - Mercado 16, Aguilar 15, Caguioa 8, Tenorio 7, Thompson 7, Ferrer 6, Devance 6, Cruz 3, Marcelo 3, Ellis 2, Mariano 0, Helterbrand 0, Mariano 0. 

STAR 62 - Pingris 12, Melton 8, Jalalon 7, Lee 7, Barroca 6, Sangalang 6, Simon 5, Maliksi 4, Reavis 3, Abundo 2, Dela Rosa 2, Brondial 0, Ramos 0. 

Quarterscores: 21-10, 33-29, 50-51, 73-62.