2016 PBA Governors' Cup Finals
# 2016 PBA Governors' Cup Finals

The 2016 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors' Cup Finals was the best-of-7 championship series of the 2016 PBA Governors' Cup, and the conclusion of the conference's playoffs. The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and Meralco Bolts competed for the 16th Governors' Cup championship and the 118th overall championship contested by the league.

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel won the series, four games to two, ending their eight-year title drought. This is the first Governors' Cup and 9th overall championship of the Ginebra franchise.

## Background

### Road to the finals

| Barangay Ginebra San Miguel | Barangay Ginebra San Miguel | Meralco Bolts | Meralco Bolts |
| - | - | - | - |
| Finished 8–3 (.727): Tied with San Miguel at 2nd place | Elimination round | Elimination round | Finished 6–5 (.545): Tied with Mahindra and Alaska at 4th place |
| .946 (3rd place) | Tiebreaker* | Tiebreaker* | 2–0 (head-to-head); Def. Mahindra, 104–99 (4th place) |
| Def. Alaska in one game, 109–104 (twice-to-beat advantage) | Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Def. Mahindra in one game, 105–82 (twice-to-beat advantage) |
| Def. San Miguel, 3–2 | Semifinals | Semifinals | Def. TNT, 3–1 |

### Head-to-head matchup

* July 30 5:00 PM
* Boxscore

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel 107, Meralco Bolts 93 :

| Scoring by quarter: 32–21, 19–26, 30–24, 26–22 |||
| - | - | - |
| Pts: Brownlee 26 Rebs: Thompson 7 Asts: Brownlee 6 | Pts: Hodge 19 Rebs: Durham 12 Asts: Durham 8 |

* Quezon Convention Center, Lucena City, Quezon Referees: E. Tangkion, B. Oliva, R. Dacanay, M. Montoya

## Series summary

| Team | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Game 5 | Game 6 | Wins |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Barangay Ginebra | 109 | 82 | 103 | 88 | 92 | 91 | 4 |
| Meralco | 114* | 79 | 107 | 86 | 81 | 88 | 2 |
| Venue | Araneta | Araneta | Araneta | Araneta | Araneta | Araneta | |

*overtime

### Game 1

* TV5
* October 7 7:00pm
* Boxscore

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel 109, Meralco Bolts 114 (OT) :

| Scoring by quarter: 28–31, 25–11, 27–33, 22–27, Overtime: 7–12 |||
| - | - | - |
| Pts: Tenorio 36 Rebs: Aguilar 12 Asts: Mercado, Thompson 5 | Pts: Durham 46 Rebs: Durham 13 Asts: Newsome 9 |
| Meralco leads series, 1–0 |||

* Smart Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City Attendance: 14,522 Referees: A. Herrera, N. Quilinguen, R. Dacanay, M. Montoya

Jimmy Alapag of the Meralco Bolts sank two three-pointers, tying the all-time record for most triples in a career, which stands at 1,242, held by Allan Caidic for 17 years. The second three-pointer proved to be critical for the game as it gave the Bolts a 101–100 lead with 33 seconds remaining. However, a game-tying floater from Ginebra's LA Tenorio brought the game into overtime, with 102 apiece after the Bolts' import Allen Durham split two free throws.

In overtime, Durham started a 7–0 run of himself and Meralco never looked back, winning the very first PBA finals game of their history. He finished with 46 points, 13 boards and 7 assists, and rookie teammate Chris Newsome added 17 markers and was a rebound and assist shy of a triple-double.

### Game 2

* TV5
* October 9 6:30pm
* Boxscore

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel 82, Meralco Bolts 79 :

| Scoring by quarter: 24–21, 19–23, 26–16, 13–19 |||
| - | - | - |
| Pts: Brownlee 32 Rebs: Brownlee 12 Asts: Mercado 4 | Pts: Durham 22 Rebs: Durham 15 Asts: Alapag 6 |
| Series tied, 1–1 |||

* Smart Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City Attendance: 18,287 Referees: J. Mariano, S. Pineda, M. Flordeliza, E. Boticario

Prior to the game, TNT KaTropa's Jayson Castro was awarded as the Best Player of the Conference, tying San Miguel Beermen's June Mar Fajardo with four BPC awards for second all-time. Meralco Bolts' import Allen Durham was also given the Bobby Parks Best Import of the Conference award, making him the second consecutive Bolts' reinforcement to be given with that award (Arinze Onuaku won the award during the Commissioner's Cup).

Alapag became the all-time leader for three-pointers made in a career, breaking the tie with Allan Caidic's record of 1,242 triples which he reached during Game 1. He made one three-pointer in the game to finish with 1,243 triples in his career. However, this served as a consolation for the Bolts as they lost a tight game against Ginebra. They failed to make a three-pointer in two attempts to tie the game. Barangay Ginebra then tied the series, splitting the first two games.

### Game 3

* TV5
* October 12 7:00pm
* Boxscore

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel 103, Meralco Bolts 107 :

| Scoring by quarter: 20–18, 24–30, 25–23, 34–36 |||
| - | - | - |
| Pts: Brownlee 42 Rebs: Brownlee 13 Asts: Thompson 7 | Pts: Durham 36 Rebs: Durham 20 Asts: Newsome 7 |
| Meralco leads series, 2–1 |||

* Smart Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City Attendance: 14,285 Referees: P. Balao, N. Guevarra, J. Narandan, E. Boticario

### Game 4

* TV5
* October 14 8:10pm
* Boxscore

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel 88, Meralco Bolts 86 :

| Scoring by quarter: 20–13, 26–22, 12–39, 30–12 |||
| - | - | - |
| Pts: Aguilar 19 Rebs: Brownlee 10 Asts: Thompson 5 | Pts: Durham 34 Rebs: Durham 20 Asts: Hugnatan, Newsome 7 |
| Series tied, 2–2 |||

* Smart Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City Attendance: 17,878 Referees: P. Balao, J. Mariano, M. Montoya, M. Flordeliza

### Game 5

* TV5
* October 16 6:30pm
* Boxscore

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel 92, Meralco Bolts 81 :

| Scoring by quarter: 33–19, 21–20, 19–20, 19–22 |||
| - | - | - |
| Pts: Brownlee 29 Rebs: Brownlee 10 Asts: Tenorio 8 | Pts: Durham 20 Rebs: Durham 18 Asts: Durham 6 |
| Barangay Ginebra leads series, 3–2 |||

* Smart Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City Attendance: 22,196 Referees: N. Quilinguen, E. Tangkion, B. Oliva, E. Boticario

### Game 6

* TV5
* October 19 7:00pm
* Boxscore

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel 91, Meralco Bolts 88 :

| Scoring by quarter: 18–27, 14–18, 33–21, 26–22 |||
| - | - | - |
| Pts: Brownlee 31 Rebs: Aguilar, Brownlee 9 Asts: Tenorio 6 | Pts: Newsome 19 Rebs: Durham, Hodge 8 Asts: Durham 10 |
| Barangay Ginebra wins series, 4–2 |||

* Smart Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City Attendance: 22,528 Referees: N. Quilinguen, J. Mariano, M. Montoya, J. Narandan

Meralco came out with an 18–4 run in the first quarter and was leading with 13 points coming into halftime. Robert Jaworski, the former playing coach of Barangay Ginebra from 1985 to 1998, was watching in the venue to support his former team. He also came to Barangay Ginebra's locker room to give some words of encouragement to the players during halftime.

LA Tenorio came out and scored 21 points in the second half to lead Barangay Ginebra's comeback.

With 5.5 seconds remaining, Barangay Ginebra had the final possession with both teams ties at 88-all. Justin Brownlee received the inbound pass and made a three-point attempt several feet behind the rainbow arc with Allen Durham closely guarding him. He made the basket as the buzzer sounded.

## Broadcast notes

The Governors' Cup Finals was aired on TV5 with a separate live broadcast on PBA Rush (both in standard and high definition). TV5's radio arm, Radyo5 provided the radio play-by-play coverage.

Sports5 also provided online livestreaming via their official YouTube account using the TV5 feed. (Available only in the Philippines)

The PBA Rush broadcast aired the championship series with English-language commentary.

| Game | Sports5 | Sports5 | Sports5 | PBA Rush (English) | PBA Rush (English) | PBA Rush (English) |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Game | Play-by-play | Analyst(s) | Courtside reporters | Play-by-play | Analyst(s) | Courtside reporters |
| Game 1 | Magoo Marjon | Andy Jao and Bo Perasol | Rizza Diaz | James Velasquez | Vince Hizon | Carla Lizardo |
| Game 2 | Charlie Cuna | Dominic Uy and Jason Webb | Erika Padilla | Chuck Araneta | Jolly Escobar | Carlo Pamintuan |
| Game 3 | Sev Sarmenta | Eric Reyes and Yeng Guiao | Sel Guevara | Jutt Sulit | Charles Tiu | Mara Aquino |
| Game 4 | Charlie Cuna | Eric Reyes and Alex Compton | Rizza Diaz | Chiqui Reyes | Ali Peek | Chino Lui Pio |
| Game 5 | Magoo Marjon | Dominic Uy and Alex Compton | Erika Padilla | Carlo Pamintuan | Vince Hizon | Carla Lizardo |
| Game 6 | Charlie Cuna | Yeng Guiao and Alex Compton | Sel Guevara | Chuck Araneta | Ali Peek | Chino Lui Pio |

* Additional Game 6 crew:
   * Trophy presentation: James Velasquez
   * Dugout celebration interviewer: Denise Tan
