Coming off an opening day loss to Meralco last Friday, TNT Katropa bounced back and tore apart Phoenix Fuel Masters, 134-109, to give the returning Jayson Castro a fitting welcome, Sunday evening at the Ynares Center, Antipolo City.
“We’re just fortunate to have Jayson back,” said TNT head coach Nash Racela on the returning Castro, who finished with a double-double of 10 points and 14 assists in the 22 minutes he played.
“[But] the goal for us is to learn without him. We can’t always have him, especially with Gilas coming up,” Racela admitted.
Lou Amundson, who has played his last game with TNT, as original reinforcement Donte Green is in town, led the Katropa with 20 points on 6-of-16 shooting along with eight rebounds.
“We’re very appreciative of what Lou Amundson did for us,” said Racela of the NBA veteran. “Isang tawag lang and he played for us. He was very professional in handling the situation knowing that another import is flying in.”
With everyone from their side clicking on both ends, the Katropa pulled away in the third canto. As Mo Tautuaa, Roger Pogoy, and Amundson joined hands for a 7-0 run, TNT reached the century mark, 100-73, with 19.9 ticks on the clock.
The Fuel Masters then never had any chance to get back on TNT. With the game decided, the Katropa still went strong, posting the game’s widest gap at 35, 122-87, after a Troy Rosario jumper, to completely burn down Phoenix.
Aside from Amundson, TNT also received huge outputs from the others. Rosario and Ranidel De Ocampo each had 18 markers on a combined 15-of-19 shooting. Pogoy had 17 spiked by four treys, while Tautuaa had 14.
“Good thing a lot of the guys contributed. Our import played well,” said Racela.
Jameel McKay led Phoenix with 31 points and 11 boards. Cyrus Baguio supplied 17 markers on 6-of-10 shooting, while Karl Dehesa and Doug Kramer each produced 12.
Matthew Wright, who is also a returnee for Phoenix after a foot surgery, played 14:52 minutes and went scoreless.
TNT shot a blistering 60 percent from the floor, hitting 50 of their 83 tries — 12-of-26 coming from beyond the arc. Most of their shots were accounted from their 38 assists. They also scored 21 off the break, and the bench contributed 59 points.
TNT aim to win another one against Blackwater on Friday, March 31, 4:15 PM at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum, while Phoenix will try to end their skid versus Ginebra on Saturday, April 1, 5:00 PM at the USEP Gym in Davao City.
The Scores:
TNT (134) – Amundson 20, De Ocampo 18, Rosario 18, Pogoy 17, Tautuaa 14, Williams 12, Castro 10, Reyes 10, Carey 6, Fonacier 3, Hernandez 3, Rosales 3, Ganuelas-Rosser 0, Tamsi 0.
Phoenix (109) – McKay 31, Baguio 17, Dehesa 12, Kramer 12, Jazul 11, Intal 8, Viernes 6, Miranda 5, W. Wilson 5, Alolino 2, Borboran 0, Torres 0, J. Wilson 0, Wright 0.
Quarterscores: 31-30, 59-48, 100-75, 134-109.
