Crowd favorites Barangay Ginebra logs fourth straight victory despite Caguioa’s absence

Not only did they buck the absence of their leading scorer, the Barangay Ginebra Kings also overcame a horrendous free throw shooting in beating the Barako Bull Energy Colas, 96-89, last night in the first game of the 38th PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Kings padded their winning run to four, evening their win-loss record to 5-5 despite the absence of superstar guard Mark Caguioa, who rested an injured knee.

The Kings started the game with a 22-4 run and that was all they needed to survive an atrocious shooting from the charity stripe.

Ginebra missed 27 of their 44 freethrow attempts with import Vernon Macklin going nine-for-23. Chris Elllis missed all of his attempts from the 4.5 meter line.

The number of freethrows missed by the Kings were the most made by a team in the league in the last 10 years.

Despite missing a lot of freethrows, Macklin still wound up as the topscorer for the Kings with 33 points. He also had 22 rebounds, three assists, two steals and one block.

Macklin also collected 22 rebounds in Ginebra’s last outing—an 84-81 victory over the Meralco Bolts.

LA Tenorio ably filled the void vacated by Caguioa, tallying his best output as a Ginebra player with 27 points. Kerby Raymundo was the only other Ginebra local to finish in double figures with 10.

Tenorio, acquired by Ginebra from Alaska, also added seven rebounds, four assists and two steals for the Kings, who reached the .500 mark for the first time in the tournament.

The Energy Colas continued to struggle as they stumbled to their sixth straight loss and dropped to 3-7.

Former Ginebra stalwart Allein Maliksi led the Energy Colas with 22 points. Import Evan Brock piled up 20 points, 12 rebounds, five steals and four assists .

RAIN OR SHINE ROUTS TALK ‘N TEXT

In the second game, the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters logged their second straight victory with a 116-85 crushing of the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters.

The win pushed the Painters to a share of the top spot with the Alaska Aces, who lost to San Mig Coffee late Saturday. Both the Aces and the Painters have a 7-3 record.

The Tropang Texters, meanwhile, dropped to 5-5 for a four-way tie at fourth place in the team standings together with the Kings, San Mig Coffee and Air21.

Talk ‘N Text couldn’t follow up its inspiring victory last Friday, wherein it crawled back from a five-point deficit in the final 37 seconds of the game to beat the Petron Blaze Boosters, 93-85 in overtime.

BOX SCORES

GINEBRA (96) – Macklin 33, Tenorio 27, Raymundo 10, Baracael 9, Ellis 7, Hatfield 7, Mamaril 2, Labagala 1, Jensen 0, Espiritu 0, Helterbrand 0.

BARAKO BULL (89) – Maliksi 22, Brock 20, Seigle 12, Urbiztondo 8, Villanueva 7, Macapagal 6, Anthony 5, Pennisi 5, Kramer 2, Allado 2,  Duncil 0, Intal 0.

QUARTERSCORES: 25-19, 46-43, 75-67, 96-89.