Rough outing for RJ Abarrientos, Ginebra in PBA Season 49 debut. That was far from the best first impression, RJAby

RAIN or Shine obviously wasn’t in a mood to lay down the red carpet for Barangay Ginebra’s PBA Governors’ Cup debut.

The Elasto Painters went on a searing fourth quarter run instigated by import Aaron Fuller and rookie Felix Lemetti to hack out a 73-64 win and the solo lead in Group B at 2-0.

Trailing by eight with eight minutes left in the game played before a full-house crowd at the Candon City Arena in Ilocos Sur, coach Yeng Guiao’s boys went on a 20-3 tear going home to spoil the Gin Kings’ first game of the season.

Punctuating that finishing kick was Lemetti’s three-pointer in the final 67 seconds.

Here are the takeaways in the first out-of-town game for the season.

Expectations were naturally high when Ginebra went out of its way and traded key players Christian Standhardinger and Stanley Pringle just to have a hand at the No. 3 overall pick, which it used to select the wily guard out of FEU.

Too bad, the 24-year-old nephew of PBA legend Johnny Abarrientos had a dismal first game in the league, scoring only two points in a woeful 1-of-15 from the floor. He was 0-for-8 from three-point range and 0-for-3 from the four-point arc while playing 29 minutes.

Still, in time, the former Gilas Pilipinas playmaker will settle down and show his true worth for the Gin Kings.

It’s still too early in the season, but many have already labelled the Fil-Swede guard as the steal of the draft. Not surprising, considering the way he played in his first two games in the league.

Lemetti’s poise down the stretch against a champion and experienced team like Ginebra was concrete proof of the kind of mettle not many knew the No. 8 pick in the last draft had.

Justin Brownlee and Scottie Thompson returned to Ginebra’s lineup after a long layoff. Brownlee was coming off a stint in the Indonesian Basketball League where he won a championship with Pelita Jaya, but is playing for the Gin Kings for the first time since April 2023.

Thompson was initially ruled out by coach Tim Cone from suiting up in the early part of the conference owing to a bad back, but played in Ginebra’s debut game anyway.

Brownlee had 18 points and 10 rebounds, but shot 7-of-21 from the field, including 0-of-4 from 27-feet. Thompson was even worse with his 1-of-10 shooting for four points. He grabbed a team-high 15 rebounds, though.

As loud as their names got after Ginebra’s offseason wheeling and dealing, Isaac Go and Stephen Holt had a rather quiet game in their first outing with the Gin Kings.

Holt, the recently named Rookie of the Year, finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, while Go was 1-of-14 from the field for two points and eight rebounds. Both Go and Holt were the biggest trade assets acquired by the franchise heading into the season as part of a trade with Terrafirma, which got Standhardinger and Pringle in return.

For the second straight time this year, the new playing venue in Ilocos Sur was bursting to the rafters as it hosted the league’s first out-of-town sortie this season.

During last season’s Philippine Cup, the modern venue also enjoyed a jam-packed crowd, as TNT rallied back to beat NLEX behind the sizzling shooting of Calvin Oftana.

Most definitely, the league is looking to host another game in the province, and more so, considering it a potential host of the 2026 All-Star Game.