The usual suspects came through when needed most as TNT survived Rain or Shine, 88-84, to take Game 1 of their PBA Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup semifinal series Wednesday evening at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, RR Pogoy, and Jayson Castro put together six straight points to flip a two-point deficit to an 85-81 lead with 3:11 remaining before turning to their defense – and needing some luck – to secure the victory.
“Our entire mindset is to make sure our defense should be on point because this is a top-scoring team in the quarterfinals,” said Coach Chot Reyes.
“We won this not with our offense but with our defense, limiting them to below 90 points,” the champion bench tactician continued.
Castro led the Tropang Giga with 24 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the first arc alongside three rebounds and four steals, although he failed to finish the game after being basically thrown out with 1:59 left to play.
The veteran guard got called for an F1 — which merits a three-minute stay on the bench — following an inadvertent kick to Andrei Caracut’s face.
The Elasto Painters, however, could not capitalize on that major development, with the youth-laden crew becoming tentative on offense as their more experienced counterparts doubled down defensively.
They did have one last attempt of tying the game by way of a four but Pogoy was there, intercepting the inbound of Caracut before time expired.
“‘Yung nagpanalo talaga sa amin is ‘yung defense talaga,” Castro said. “Even si RHJ, ‘yung scoring average niya hindi niya naano pero in defense siya talaga ‘yung pinaka-anchor namin doon, siya ‘yung nagdidikta sa amin.”
Calvin Oftana supplied 22 points, 12 of which he made in the second chapter alone, on a 6-of-8 clip from three-point distance as he and Castro delivered on a night Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was the focal point of their foes’ defense.
A candidate for Best Import honors, RHJ did finish with 23 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, and four blocks but shot just 8-of-27 from the floor.
“They did a really good job defending Rondae and when that happens we have to be able to go to our counter and Jayson and Calvin were the ones who provided that firepower coming off the bench,” said Reyes.
Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is set Friday, February 28, 7:30 p.m. at the Philsports Arena in Pasig, with TNT shooting for a 2-0 lead.
Deon Thompson, meanwhile, finished with 29 points and 17 rebounds to lead RoS, which got denied on offense in its last four possessions.
The Scores:
TNT 88 – Castro 24, Hollis-Jefferson 23, Oftana 22, Pogoy 9, Nambatac 4, Aurin 2, Erram 2, Williams 2, Khobuntin 0, Heruela 0, Galinato 0.
Rain or Shine 84- Thompson 29, Nocum 18, Datu 9, Santillan 6, Clarito 6, Mamuyac 4, Caracut 3, Tiongson 3, Lemetti 3, Asistio 3, Norwood 0.
Quarterscores: 22-28, 51-47, 74-70, 88-84.
