All eyes were fixed on Jason Castro “the Blur” took the floor at the Alonte Sports Arena in Biñan, Laguna Sunday night to claim a 104-92 victory and secure the No. 1 seed in the PBA Governors' Cup .
Behind the game-long brilliance of import Michael Ammons and Jayson Castro, the KaTropa led by as much as 21 points in the fourth quarter, only for Ginebra to come roaring back behind import Justin Brownlee.
The loss dropped Ginebra to 8-3 and into third place, In the quarterfinal pairings, it will be No. 1 versus No. 8, No. 2 versus No. 7, No. 3 versus No. 6 and No. 4 versus No. 5 with the top four seeds enjoying a twice-to-beat advantage. Aside from which teams will be No. 1 and No. 2, the other undecided slots are No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 and No. 8. Confirmed are No. 6 Alaska (6-5) and No. 7 NLEX (5-6).
This Wednesday, there will be two playoff games to settle the teams seeded No. 4, No. 5 and No. 8. Meralco and Mahindra, both toting 6-5 records, will dispute the No. 4 slot and a twice-to-beat advantage while Rain Or Shine takes on Phoenix in a do-or-die clash. The Elasto Painters and the Petroleum Fuel Masters finished the eliminations in a three-way tie with NLEX at 5-6. Applying the quotient system, NLEX (plus 8) took the No. 7 slot, leaving Rain Or Shine (plus 5) and Phoenix (minus 13) to square off for the last playoff ticket. The loser in the Painters-Masters playoff will join GlobalPort, Star and Blackwater by the wayside.
Brownlee finished with 34 points, while LA Tenorio had 21 for Ginebra. But the Gin Kings got little help from their other local players and their bench. Japeth Aguilar, with 11 points, was the only other player in double-digits for Ginebra.
The loss also snapped Ginebra's four-game winning streak.