Ginebra coach Tim Cone during the PBA Philippine Cup.–PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines—Ginebra coach Tim Cone is not taking Converge lightly in their upcoming PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals matchup.
Despite being armed with a twice-to-beat advantage, Cone said the Gin Kings still have a lot to worry about against the FiberXers.
READ: PBA: Ginebra claims last twice-to-beat, fends off Rain or Shine
What concerns Cone most is the twin towers of Justin Arana and Justine Baltazar.
“They have two really solid bigs that are really hard to handle and match up to,” said Cone after their win over Rain or Shine on Saturday in Antipolo. “We know them a little bit because we played them already and we played them out of town.”
The FiberXers, even without the services of Jordan Heading, was able to reach greater heights in the all-Filipino conference with a 7-4 record.
One of their four losses came at the hands of Ginebra, 85-66, in Pampanga, last month.
In that particular game, Baltazar and Arana struggled with just 13 and nine points, respectively.
READ: PBA: Tim Cone downplays Ginebra win over TNT
It also didn’t help Converge’s case that Japeth Aguilar dominated in that game with a double-double of 23 points and 10 rebounds.
According to Cone, should that same formula come up again, then the Gin Kings can handily send the FiberXers packing.
“Japeth played a big game back then and he’s obviously going to need to do that to battle those two bigs. We’re going to need a big game from Japheth,” said Cone of Aguilar, who finished with 18 and 10 on Sunday’s win.
“[The] bottom line is, we’re just going to prepare ourselves and try to go out and just win one game. That’s really [all] we’re thinking about, one game, not twice-to-beat. We’re just thinking about one game and winning that,” he added.
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Ginebra (8-3) takes on Converge for a seat in the semifinals on Friday at Ninoy Aquino Stadium.