{"id":416223,"date":"2026-06-15T06:20:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T06:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/?p=416223"},"modified":"2026-06-15T06:20:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T06:20:40","slug":"mccullough-drops-53-as-tnt-forces-game-7-vs-ginebra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/2026\/06\/15\/mccullough-drops-53-as-tnt-forces-game-7-vs-ginebra\/","title":{"rendered":"McCullough drops 53 as TNT forces Game 7 vs Ginebra"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MANILA<\/strong> \u2014 Chris McCullough outplayed Justin Brownlee in an epic import showdown to lead TNT to a 98-90 win against Ginebra on Sunday night in Game 6 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals in front of 22,731 fans at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two nights after witnessing Brownlee drop a career-high 54 points, McCullough responded with a 53-point blast on 20 of 36 shooting, including 6 of 12 on long-range bombs and 22 rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, none was more important than his four-point shot with 1:53 left that gave the Tropang 5G enough cushion to hold off the Brownlee-led gallant fight by the Gin Kings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Just to come out and be aggressive, I’ll take my shots and not shy away from those shots even though I’ve been missing a lot. I’ve been doing this for 12 years, so it’s something I know how to do. And I’m just happy we stuck with it, played good defense, rebounded well, and hit big shots,” said McCullough, a first-round pick in the 2015 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jordan Heading added 19 points, one rebound, nine assists, one steal, and one block for TNT, which sent the championship round to a Game 7 on Wednesday night at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team won Game 6 despite being forced to sit out injured stars Calvin Oftana and Brandon Rosser, and the franchise held on even if Jayson Castro sprained his ankle in-game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fresh from the 54-point blast in Ginebra’s Game 4 overtime win, Brownlee fired 52 on 23 of 33 field goals, five rebounds, three assists, two steals, and two blocks, but no other Gin King finished in double figures scoring-wise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We just want to go out there and win. We want to play our best foot forward and try to play the best that I could for the team,” Brownlee said on his drive for back-to-back 50-point games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to chief statistician Fidel Mangonon, the McCullough-Brownlee showdown was the first time both PBA finalists had 50-point players each since Carlos Briggs dropped 60 for the Ginebra franchise, then known as A\u00f1ejo, and Ennis Whatley fired exactly 50 for San Miguel in Game 4 of the 1989 Reinforced Conference championship. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2014 Chris McCullough outplayed Justin Brownlee in an epic import showdown to lead TNT to a 98-90 win against Ginebra on Sunday night in Game 6 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals in front of 22,731 fans at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City. Two nights after witnessing Brownlee drop a career-high 54 points, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-416223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416224,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416223\/revisions\/416224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}