MANILA, Philippines — Tim Cone admitted he was pleasantly surprised by how seemingly easy Barangay Ginebra disposed of long-time rival Magnolia, 99-77 on Saturday to advance to the PBA Philippine Cup best-of-five semifinal series.

Heading into the game at the historic Rizal Memorial Coliseum, the American mentor said he was expecting a tense atmosphere, knowing full well that the Hotshots are capable of matching up against them on any given day.

"I'm totally so gulat (shocked), so shocked, this quick that we were able to beat them like we did," said Cone after the game. "All day, I just dreaded playing this game, we got a knockout game on Wednesday? Oh"

Cone believes Magnolia, outside top seed San Miguel Beer is capabler of knocking Ginebra off its pedestal given its veteran core that's eager and hungry to end a six-year PBA title drought.

"You go through those emotions leading to the game. It was a tough day in terms of trying, and coming to the game, especially against Magnolia because they pose a lot of danger, outside of San Miguel," he explained.

"They have a proven track record. They just played in the Finals in the last conference.

I'm totally shocked we played as well as we did to finish them off tonight but I'm really happy with what we did, we don't want to play another knockout game with them."

Christian Standhardinger, Scottie Thompson and Japeth Aguilar, championship-tested veterans led the way for Ginebra, with the help of fast-rising rookie Ralph Cu.

But then again, Cone cautioned Ginebra from being carried away by the quarterfinal victory, knowing full well that the next playoff ladder will be a lot tougher.

In fact, Cone said either way, playing against Meralco or NLEX, two teams that beat Ginebra in the eliminations, will pose a serious threat to the Gin Kings' championship aspirations in the all-Filipino conference.