The Filipino-American scoring specialist played 23 minutes in the finals opener.
On Sunday, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel opened up the PBA Governors’ Cup finals with a conclusive 102-90 win over the TNT Tropang Giga at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The defending champions went off, led by Justin Brownlee's 31 points and Scottie Thompson's 10-13-11 triple-double. High-flying, fast-rising star Jamie Malonzo (21 points and 8 rebounds), and Best Player of the Conference frontrunner Christian Standhardinger (16 points) also imposed their presence in the game.
Aside from the usual suspects, Ginebra had another potent weapon in Stanley Pringle who chipped in 11 points. Having the 2018 PBA scoring champion for a sixth man is clearly a huge asset for coach Tim Cone. During the post-game presser, he talked about what it’s like to have a player like Pringle coming off the bench, and the reason behind that strategy.
“Stanley, we don’t think of him as a bench player. He’s a starter coming off the bench,” Cone told reporters.
“We just try to keep his minutes at a certain level as he continues to build his body back. We don’t want to get him in a situation where we overplay him, and he goes down,” the coach added.
The six-time All-Star guard underwent knee surgery in December of 2021, and missed the following year’s Governors’ Cup. As soon as he got his rhythm back, Pringle showed that he’s still capable of putting up substantial numbers.
In Game 1, Cone pointed out how the 36-year-old guard helped his squad pull away from the Tropang Giga.
“When they [TNT] went to zone there at the end, he [Pringle] stepped up, and made some big shots, and big plays.”
That said, Ginebra’s chief tactician is still erring on the side of caution when it comes to his super sub, or in Cone's words, super off-the-bench starter.
“Having him come off the bench is an incredible luxury. But we are still very, very careful with Stanley. Because he is such a great player, we don’t want to break him down,” Cone reiterated.
Game 2 between Ginebra and TNT takes place once again at the Big Dome on Wednesday.