Roger Pogoy will remain on the sidelines when TNT looks to bounce back versus Rain or Shine in Game 4 of their PBA Philippine Cup semis on Wednesday.
The two-way star himself confirmed the news to Tiebreaker Times a day before the anticipated encounter, where the Tropang 5G aim to pick themselves up after suffering a 107-86 rout last Sunday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
Pogoy was in street clothes and sat out that match, and his absence on the court was a huge blow to the Grand Slam seekers. Instead, they saw their bid to build a 3-0 lead in the race-to-4 series foiled by their hungry counterparts.
The Elasto Painters entered Game 3 a motivated unit after melting down in the game prior last Friday, where they blew an 18-point lead — and failed to capitalize on the veteran guard’s second-quarter exit due to hamstring woes.
Calvin Oftana stepped up with his ‘amigo’ down, firing 39 points that included a controversial call which sent him to the foul line late in the fourth quarter. The free throws eventually sent the game into overtime to complete the fightback.
But they rectified their mistakes come Sunday, limiting Oftana to 16 on just a 1-of-6 clip from the three-point area — and only one shot from the charity stripe — toward the 21-point victory, thus avoiding falling into a precarious situation.
And so, Game 4 should be an opportunity for Coach Yeng Guiao’s charges to tie things up and reduce the series to a virtual best-of-three with Pogoy out again.
The former FEU standout has long proven to be a thorn in the side of RoS, which was evident in Game 1 last Wednesday when he fired a game-high 28 points to help lead their strong second-half push to come all the way back.
He then appeared to be bound for another big night when the Cebuano star already had 11 points in just the opening period of Game 2, only for it to be cut short by an injury that’s been hounding him since the quarterfinals.
Game 4 is at the Mall of Asia Arena at 7:30 PM, with many, of course, curious as to how TNT would respond after that harsh beating the last time out.
