BY JONAS TERRADO
Game Thursday
(Smart Araneta Coliseum)
7 p.m. – Meralco vs TNT KaTropa
(Series tied 1-1)
Meralco guard Baser Amer is usually a man of a few words once reporters have already pressed the record button.
But in a rare occurrence Tuesday, Amer took a more candid approach in describing how TNT KaTropa forward Roger Pogoy went too far with the physicality after two games of their PBA Governors’ Cup semifinal series.
Amer claimed that Pogoy pinched him several times since Game 1 that it caused him to have bruises in his stomach and legs.
“Ang dami niyang kurot sa tiyan ko at sa legs ko so hopefully makita ng referee yun kasi di na basketball e,” Amer said after the Bolts tied the series at 1-1 with a 114-94 rout of the KaTropa at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
His frustration was evident in the early moments when television replays saw the Meralco guard giving Pogoy an elbow, prompting the TNT forward to fall on the floor in hopes of fishing a foul.
Pogoy later got into a heated exchange at the Meralco bench with almost three minutes into the game, resulting in a technical for both him and Bolts assistant coach Chris Tan.
“Motivated na rin kami kasi yun nga nakakabastos na kasi wala naman akong ginagawa o wala naman kaming ginagawa sa kanila pero nandun yung pambubully,” said Amer.
Amer would rather not escalate the situation, stressing instead to focus on trying to put Meralco in the driver seat for Game 3 set Thursday night at the Big Dome.
A victory will put the Bolts a win shy of advancing to their third finals appearance in the last four editions of the season-ending conference.
Amer finished with 20 points as import Allen Durham got the needed support he lacked in the 103-94 defeat last Sunday.
Durham had his numbers, posting 44 points, 19 rebounds and 11 assists in a game that saw Meralco lead by as many as 35.
“We felt in Game 1, we were too individualistic and we didn’t really execute offensively. Normally when you play good offense, everybody’s in the right spot and we have great spacing. In Game 1, we had none of that,” said Meralco coach Norman Black.
“But (in Game 2), because we really focused on just making sure we executed our offense, got the ball to our point of attack which is AD on our team, it made it a lot easy for us to space the floor and for him to score. That’s something we just have to continue to do in this series,” he added.
It was the other way around at TNT as import KJ McDaniels tied his conference-high with 51 points but lacked the support from the locals.
Pogoy, who refrained from commenting on Amer’s accusations, laid an egg as he failed to score a single point in 32 minutes while Jayson Castro missed all 10 shots and made all seven points through the free-throw line.
