MANILA, Philippines — Barangay Ginebra may have fallen short of its goal to win the PBA Governors’ Cup championship, but Justin Brownlee remains proud of what the Gin Kings managed to accomplish.
The Gin Kings held an 11-point lead in the third canto of Game 6. But the Tropang Giga put the clamps after holding the Gin Kings to just 11 points in the final period as they went on to secure a 95-85 victory en route to winning the title series, 4-2, and the championship.
“It was a good series, it was fun. Not the way we want it to end but we competed, they played great and they won. Congratulations to them, Brownlee said.
“It’s well deserved. We gave it all we had, we just came up short,” he said.
The 6-foot-4 Brownlee, who finished with just 16 points on 8-of-21 shooting, admitted that losing in the Finals “hurts a little bit.”
“Good fight from our guys, proud of the team definitely with how far we’ve come. It just hurts a little bit coming up short but congratulations to TNT though,” shared Brownlee, who averaged 19.6 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists in the championship series.
The three-time PBA Best Import admitted the title series was a challenging stretch for him due to the tough defense TNT threw at him.
“I guess just their team defense. I’ve got to admit, it’s tough. They had a really good game plan,” noted Brownlee, who will have little time to rest as he is set to swing back to action soon with Gilas Pilipinas for the FIBA 2025 Asia Cup two weeks from now.
“They executed it really well by playing me a certain way, so I’ve got to give a lot of credit to them,” he added.
Brownlee reasoned that overall, his game was off at some point of the Finals series, which he attributed to how effective TNT’s defensive schemes were against him.
“I would say for myself too I was a little off my game. I feel like I’ve gotten some shots that I can normally make but I didn’t connect,” he explained. “It was definitely a mixture of me not being able to get into a rhythm, and their defense not allowing me to get into a rhythm.”
