Powell, Dragons drag Gin Kings to winner-take-all Game 7

Myles Powell marked his return to active duty in a big way, by powering back-against-the-wall Bay Area to a resounding 87-84 victory over Brgy. Ginebra in Game 6 of the best-of-seven championship series in the PBA Season 47 Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.

The 25-year-old American, who was activated in lieu of the still-injured Andrew Nicholson, fired 29 points on 11-of-20 shooting with 5-of-11 coming all the way from 3-point country. The former NBA player added 7 rebounds and 3 assists in 35 minutes of action.

“Just being out there with my brothers and the will to win. I know what we had to do, I know what I mean to the team,” said Powell during the post-game presser with the best player and winning coach.

“If I couldn’t bring that, I wouldn’t step out on the floor. Coach sacrificed for us, and it was my turn to sacrifice, and that’s what I went out there and did today,” he added.

Hayden Blankley added 23 points while Glen Yang and Zhu Songwei chipped in 10 markers apiece.

“I had exhausted bodies on the floor, and what we do and how we play to stay with this team is exhausting. The guy next to me [Powell] is not in a condition to walk into something like that. It’s totally will — his will,” said Bay Area mentor Brian Goorjian.

“He’s shown this, his spirit is incredible, and our guys, our young kids know about him, and there’s somebody to play off. And we put the ball in his hands the last five minutes of the game when we went down seven [points], and he took us to the Promised Land. So we got another one,” he added.

Justin Brownlee paced the crowd darlings with a triple-double output of 37 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in an almost no-relief job. He shot 4-of-10 from beyond the arc and also had 4 steals and the same number of blocks. Japeth Aguilar and Christian Standhardinger backstopped their prolific reinforcement with 12 points each. Reiging league MVP Scottie Thompson finished with 8 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals.

The winner-take-all Game 7, originally set for Friday, January 13, has been moved to Sunday, January 15, 5:45pm at Philippine Arena in Bocaue Bulacan.

The scores:

Bay Area 87 – Powell 29, Blankley 23, Yang 10, Zhu 10, Lam 9, Liu 4, Reid 2, Zheng 0, Ju 0.

Brgy. Ginebra 84 – Brownlee 37, J. Aguilar 12, Standhardinger 12, Thompson 8, Pringle 8, Malonzo 4, Pinto 3, Tenorio 0, Gray 0.

Quarterscores: 25-20, 50-42, 66-64, 87-84.