MUCH has been said about how good ace guard Mikey Williams of defending champion TNT is since he arrived at the Tropang Giga camp last season.
But don’t count out veteran playmaker Jayson Castro, who proved to one and sundry he’s still the team’s top clutch player last night.
Castro boomed in a dagger of a three-pointer with 3.4 seconds left that lifted TNT to a heart-stopping 93-92 decision over gritty Magnolia in Game 3 of their best-of-7 semifinals duel in the PBA Philippine Cup before a good-sized crowd at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Castro’s backbreaking triple came seven seconds after Hotshot Mark Barroca scored on a layup that made it a 92-90 game.
Without a timeout, Magnolia went to Paul Lee who launched a desperation heave that was nowhere near the rim at the buzzer.
Hardworking big man JP Erram scattered a game-high 22 points, to go with eight rebounds for the Tropang Giga, while Castro chipped in 16 markers, two boards, and six assists.
Williams and Glenn Khobuntin also had 15 points each as TNT redeemed itself from an 88-92 loss to the Hotshots in Game 2 three days ago and took a 2-1 lead in the race-to-4 series.
Tropang Giga coach Chot Reyes said his charges had to fight hard against an equally determined Magnolia quintet which took several double-digit spreads.
“We have no illusions about this being an easy game or series by any stretch of the imagination. We knew that this will be a struggle, this will be a challenge all the way,” Reyes said.
“So, even when there were moments in the ballgame that we were down, Magnolia had a couple of double-digit leads, we just kept our poise and kept telling our players to stay within the game and at what we do,” he added.
TNT fell early on 19-29 but battled back and took a 47-41 lead at the half.
Working behind Calvin Abueva, Ian Sangalang, and Lee, the Hotshots regained the upper hand 73-66 heading into the payoff period.
A Castro three-point play conversion pegged a 90-88 count before Barroca’s basket knotted it 90-all after Williams missed on an uncontested layup, only 47.7 ticks left.
