TNT overcame a sloppy endgame before escaping the hard-fighting Macau with a 106-103 decision to open its title defense bid in the PBA Season 50 Governors’ Cup on the right foot, Sunday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
The Tropang 5G already held a supposedly comfortable 15-point lead entering the final three minutes. Still, the Giant Pandas slowly chipped away at the deficit and found themselves trailing by just a field goal with 4.5 seconds left.
It was due to a 14-1 spurt, but luck sided the reigning champs, with Damian Chongqui failing to perfect his trips to the line that could’ve tied the game up.
Rey Nambatac split his own freebies with about three ticks remaining and still kept the door open for the other team. But Liu Xucheng threw an ill-advised half-court heave even with ample time for a proper shot in a sorry finish.
(C) PBA Images
“Obviously, you can’t be satisfied with an ending like that. But at the same time, we knew we were going to struggle — number one kulang kami sa players,” said head coach Chot Reyes, as they’re missing some players due to injury.
“And number two, this was our first tuneup game. Ni hindi kami nakapag-tuneup in the offseason because we opted to rest, recover,” he added as they were only a month removed from the Commissioner’s Cup Finals versus Ginebra.
Nambatac finished with 23 points, three rebounds, six assists, a steal, and a block for TNT on his way to earning Player of the Game honors, showing how much he wants to bounce back after a downer of a Commissioner’s Cup.
“‘Yung last conference ko was a wakeup call, an eye-opener na rin para sa akin,” he said. “Sabi ko, hindi puwedeng ganun. So I need to step up and ibalik ko ‘yung usual na laro ko and dito mag-i-start ‘yun sa conference na ‘to.”
Import Darius Days also had 23 points and six rebounds in his league debut. Roger Pogoy had 21 points while Glenn Khobuntin added 11 markers.
TNT will try to make it back-to-back wins when it takes on the hopeless Titan Ultra on Tuesday, July 22, at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
(C) PBA Images
De’Vondre Perry led Macau with a game-high 36 points alongside 10 rebounds, but the guest team still spiraled to its fourth loss in as many games.
Chongqui made 24 points and eight assists, with Ramon Cao adding 14 points and 12 rebounds, and Kobey Lam chipping in 14 as well in the defeat.
The Scores:
TNT 106 – Nambatac 23, Days 23, Pogoy 21, Khobuntin 11, Aurin 9, Quitevis 8, Galinato 4, Ferrer 3, Jalalon 2, Heading 2, Varilla 0, Enciso 0, Celzo 0.
Macau 103 – Perry 36, Chongqui 24, Cao 14, Lam 14, Ma 8, Z. Zhang 3, Chao 2, Y. Zhang 2, Liu 0, Zhu 0.
Quarterscores: 25-21, 52-48, 80-67, 106-103.
