TNT kept its hopes alive as it stopped San Miguel from clinching the championship after grinding out an 86-78 victory in Game 5 of the PBA Season 49 Philippine Cup Finals, Wednesday night at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
With many expecting the Beermen to complete a gentleman’s sweep with a 3-1 lead in the race-to-4 series, the defense-first Tropang 5G flipped the narrative by unleashing a strong fourth-quarter storm to live to fight another game.
Game 6 is set on Friday at 7:30 PM at the Philsports Arena in Pasig, with the Grand Slam seekers looking to do the same thing and force a Game 7.
“I saw a lot fight,” Coach Chot Reyes said. “Just an unwillingness to give up. Our pregame talk was all about… This has been a very, very long season, and now we’re down to our final week, and I said let’s make this the best week.”
(C) PBA Images
Six of the nine players fielded registered double figures in the win, with Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser leading the way with 18 points and five rebounds.
Kelly Williams made 14 points and seven rebounds. Calvin Oftana and Jordan Heading had 13 points each, while Roger Pogoy and Almond Vosotros added 11 markers apiece as the rotation, shortened by injuries, managed to work.
TNT played without Poy Erram as he’s now dealing with a meniscus tear on his left knee as per MRI results, making him unavailable for the entire series.
It is a big blow for an already banged-up side, but Game 5 could be an indication that they can hold their ground, still, with Williams and ‘BGR combining for 28 points to lead the crew to a 41-31 halftime lead.
San Miguel, of course, rallied back and even reduced the deficit to one possession, 59-55, early in the final period, but the Tropa would not be denied.
Pogoy ignited a rally in which Heading, Ganuelas-Rosser, and Vosotros chipped in, making it a 13-0 blitz toward a 72-55 lead with about eight minutes to go.
That proved to be the decisive run, although they managed to grow the lead to its biggest at 18 mere moments later, and their foes struggled to respond.
“We’ll just fight as hard as we can and we’ll see what happens,” Reyes said. “And luckily, I could see in yesterday’s practice and today in the body language and in the eyes of our players, they were just not willing to give up.
“We’ve said that all year, as long as we show up, we don’t give up, we give ourselves a chance. We’re lucky that we’re able to hold San Miguel down to below 80 points in this game,” added the champion bench tactician.
(C) PBA Images
Jericho Cruz, meanwhile, led San Miguel with 20 points in another solid showing for the bruising wing, but found little help. No one outside of Marcio Lassiter (15 points) and June Mar Fajardo (13 points, 13 rebounds) produced much.
CJ Perez only had five points on 1-of-9 shooting from the floor as the former BPC failed to sustain his fine play from Game 4 last Sunday.
The Scores:
TNT 86 – Ganuelas-Rosser 18, Williams 14, Oftana 13, Heading 13, Pogoy 11, Vosotros 11, Aurin 4, Khobuntin 2, Heruela 0.
San Miguel 78 – Cruz 20, Lassiter 15, Fajardo 13, Tautuaa 9, Trollano 8, Ross 6, Perez 5, Rosales 2, Brondial 0, Teng 0, Tiongson 0.
Quarterscores: 27-20, 41-31, 59-53, 86-78.
