By JONAS TERRADO
TNT coach Chot Reyes said there was no reason to dwell too much on the Game 2 meltdown, knowing that his team was still in a good position to beat San Miguel Beer in their PBA Philippine Cup semifinal series.
True enough as the Tropang Giga rolled to a 115-98 victory Friday, Oct. 8 that gave them a 2-1 lead.
The Tropang Giga could have been more comfortable now had it not been for the collapse two days prior.
SMB avoided going down 0-2 two days prior when it came back from a 19-point deficit to produce a dramatic 98-96 win on Marcio Lassiter’s buzzer-beating putback.
“Actually we were very sad and disappointed after that Game 2 loss,”Reyes said. “But I just reminded the players that even if we take a look before the series and you say lalabanan natin ang San Miguel nang wala si Kelly (Williams who is out due to health and safety protocols), after two games it was 1-all, masaya tayo dun di ba? Malungkot ba tayo doon o masaya? Then sila nagsabi, ‘Masaya tayo.’
“I just reminded them of that. One-all naman ngayon e. Masakit lang yung pagkatalo, but in the end, it’s still the same. It’s one-all. So we should still be very happy about where we are and our position. So sabi namin let’s just look forward to Game 3 and figure out how we can be better.”
TNT got to an 11-0 start and never looked back as it led by double figures for most of the way even as SMB didn’t show any threat of mounting a comeback with the way it played in the second half.
RR Pogoy once again topscored with 26 points but Poy Erram’s 21-point, 13-rebound effort was one of the keys in TNT’s triumph.
Having rookie Mikey Williams produce 20 points despite a 7-of-22 clip following his offensive struggles in the first two games was also vital for the Tropang Giga.
On the defensive side, TNT forced SMB to 24 turnovers which were converted into 29 points. TNT also had 27 second chance points and 16 fastbreak points.
“We cannot be better than this team in terms of talent and size, so we just focused on putting in better effort,” said Reyes. “It’s just better effort, better collaboration, better teammanship and better communication. I think in the end, that’s what happened.”
Meantime, Meralco bucked the absence of Raymond Almazan to repel the repeated rallies of Magnolia Pambansang Manok, 91-86, and reduce its deficit to 2-1 in their own semis series.
Chris Newsome, Mac Belo and Cliff Hodge provided key numbers while John Pinto and the returning Noy Baclao also played important roles as the Bolts displayed better composure compared to the previous two games to finally get a victory in the best-of-seven series.
Almazan was in uniform but was scratched from Friday’s match after spraining his left ankle in Game 2.
Coach Norman Black and the Bolts led by 21 early in the fourth but refused to succumb to the pressure of the Hotshots’ final comeback try to avoid a falling behind 0-3 in the series.
“We had to win the game and we treated this game as a no-tomorrow game and it was a must-win for us so all the credit to the players,” said Black.
Newsome topscored with 17 points, six rebounds and four assists, Belo had 14 points and Hodge produced seven points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two steals after getting tossed in the third quarter of the Bolts’ 92-78 defeat in the previous outing.
