Stan the Man lived up to his nickname, and may have earned a new one, too.
When LA Tenorio left Game 5 of the PBA Commissioner's Cup Finals in the third period, Stanley Pringle had to pick up the mantle of main point guard.
Pringle didn’t disappoint.
Although not at full strength, the bearded guard did what he had to and delivered the big blows down the stretch as Ginebra moved a win away from the championship with a 101-91 Game 5 win.
Ginebra leads the series, 3-2.
With extended minutes on the court, Pringle turned it up in the fourth period and dropped 11 of his 20 points including back-to-back corner triples inside the last two minutes that helped the Gin Kings foil Bay Area’s comeback attempt.
“We really try hard to keep Stanley’s minutes down, not trying to overextend him. We don’t want him to play 30 minutes a game. We’re trying to keep him in the 20 (minutes) range. He’s in and out a lot. We don’t try to extend his minutes too long,” said Ginebra head coach Tim Cone after the match witnessed by almost 22,000 screaming fans at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“But LA came up with a groin injury, that’s why he didn’t play down the stretch. He came up with a groin injury and we had to extend Stanley a little more than we wanted to.”
Cone, though, didn’t divulge the reason behind the minutes restriction on Pringle.
That worked in their favor in Sunday’s contest. Since he had little exposure in the series, he became what Cone called a “secret weapon” in a game where Bay Area missed the services of key players Andrew Nicholson and Glen Yang.
“He’s a weapon that the Bay Area has not seen really . . . they don’t know the history of Stanley a year ago, or 2 years ago, or 3 years ago, of how dynamic he can be. So he’s almost like a secret weapon off the bench for us against Bay Area,” the veteran tactician said.
It’s not clear whether Tenorio can play in Game 6. But with Bay Area’s key players expected to suit up on Wednesday in a must-win game for them, Ginebra needs all the help it can get to slay the Dragons.