LANKY center Japeth Aguilar hit a baseline jumper with a second left to help the Barangay Ginebra Kings escape the struggling but hard-fighting Blackwater Bossing, 101-99, in the 49th PBA Philippine Cup on Friday night, May 23, at the PhilSports Arena.

Aguilar caught a well-timed pass from Scottie Thompson then pulled up for the marginal shot. Blackwater was forced to make a heave that badly missed at the buzzer, sealing Ginebra’s third straight win that hiked its record to 5-2 (win-loss).

Aguilar topscored for Ginebra with 22 points. Four other Ginebra players scored in double figures with Thompson 18 and Troy Rosario putting in 18 points each and Jamie Malonzo and Stephen Holt adding 15 and 13, respectively.

Ginebra actually led by as many as 11 points but Blackwater came back and tied the contest at 99-all with 19 seconds left.

Luckily for Ginebra, Aguilar was there to save the dday by delivering the good-looking jumper off Thompson’s nifty feed.

Sedrick Barefield erupted for 32 points to lead Blackwater while RK Ilakan came away with 24 points.

Jason David added 15 points in a losing effort as the Bossing crashed to their sixth loss with only one win to show so far.

THE SCORES:

GINEBRA (101) - J.Aguilar 22, Thompson 18, Rosario 18, Malonzo 15, Holt 13, Abarrientos 8, Adamos 4, David 3, Gray 0.

BLACKWATER (99)- Barefield 32, Ilagan 24, David 15, Mallilin 9, Escoto 8, Casio 3, Jopia 2, Guinto 2, Tratter 2, Chua 2, Andrade 0, Mitchell 0.QUARTERSCORES: 19-25, 46-43, 72-71, 101-99.(CCM)

• Tags
• #PBA Philippine Cup
• #Japeth Aguilar
• #Barangay Ginebra Kings
• #49th PBA Philippine Cup
• #PhilSports Arena
• #Scottie Thompson
• #Troy Rosario
• #Jamie Malonzo