Christian Standhardinger’s career game for Barangay Ginebra was spoiled by the Meralco Bolts in Game 2 of the 2024 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals.
Standhardinger fired 41 points and hauled 11 rebounds on top of four dimes, but Ginebra fell short of completing a 17-point comeback on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
But for Ginebra head coach Tim Cone, it was also a matter of the rest of the Gin Kings failing to step up.
“Their game plan was obvious — put the ball in Christian’s hand and make him beat them from the line,” Cone said right before he exited the Mall of Asia Arena.
“He was almost up to the task, he kept it going, but they did a good job of shutting everybody else down. We needed to get contributions from everybody, and we didn’t get that tonight. We have to get contributions from everybody.”
“It’s not only about Christian. We didn’t get contributions, we didn’t have positive minutes from a lot of our guys last night,” Cone continued.
Ginebra coach Tim Cone. Photo from PBA Images.
Standhardinger also downplayed the stellar numbers which he produced.
“I don’t even think about that. I’m just trying to read where the right decision is. I just needed to keep aggressive, and I didn’t think about any statistics,” Christian said in a separate interview.
“Coach Tim, I’m sure he saw that, and he saw what’s going on, and like I said, the help was not coming so I needed to be aggressive. It’s the battle of the coaches, to make adjustments after adjustments after adjustments.”
Unlike in Game 1 wherein five Ginebra players at least scored in double digits while their bench contributed 23 points, only Mav Ahanmisi (14) and Stanley Pringle (13) scored above 10 aside from C-Stand, and their reserves only finished with 17.
The Bolts’ rebounding advantage (50-39) also proved crucial in their win, with Luigi Trillo’s boys even getting an 18-11 lead over BGSM on the offensive glass.
For Standhardinger, luck was just not on their side in Game 2.
“I think it’s always hard to pinpoint certain things and say that we’re not physical or we’re physical. Obviously, when you see that we get outrebounded, you would think that the other team was more physical,” Standhardinger explained.
“But I know that my guys and I are playing very physically. Sometimes there are nights, because of certain things, the ball doesn’t fly away.”
What they need to do instead, he pointed out, is respect the Bolts despite them almost missing out on a playoff spot.
“Meralco is such a tough team. You’ve got to give them a lot of respect. They ground it out, and they played efficient basketball,” said the Fil-German big man.
“Every team that gets into the semifinals, nobody worries about the regular season anymore. That’s why I’m saying that everybody is 100%, and they are just playing great basketball right now.”
“We just have to make an adjustment and keep on grinding. Next game, we will play with the same physicality because it’s the playoffs. It’s always 100%, there’s no more physical or less physical,” he said.
Game 3 of the series is set on Wednesday, 7:30 PM, at the Dasmariñas Arena in Cavite.
