GAME WEDNESDAY
(Smart Araneta Coliseum)
5:45 p.m. — TNT vs. SMB
HOW many times have Jayson Castro played the hero’s role for defending champion TNT? Add the Tropang Giga’s heart-stopping escape over San Miguel Beer to the list last night.
Castro boomed in what turned out to be the game-winning jumper off Beerman Simon Enciso at the buzzer that lifted TNT to an 86-84 cliffhanger over SMB in Game 1 of their best-of-7 finals showdown for the PBA Philippine Cup crown at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Beermen knotted the match at 84-all on a Vic Manuel three-point play with 53.6 seconds remaining before Tropang Giga gunner Roger Pogoy missed on a jumper in the ensuing play.
But TNT forced a 24-second shot clock violation on SMB’s CJ Perez, leading to Castro’s dagger of a basket in the last 1.6 ticks that completed the Tropang Giga’s fightback from a 15-point second quarter hole — the same quarter where Fil-Am NBA cager and Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player Jordan Clarkson arrived at the Big Dome to watch the opening game of the race-to-4 series.
Pogoy dazzled with a game-high 26 points spiked by four three-pointers, grabbed three rebounds, and issued two assists for TNT, while Mikey Williams backed him up with 21 markers, four boards, and two dimes.
Castro also finished with 15 points, three caroms, and two feeds as the Tropang Giga scored a big follow-up to their 87-74 drubbing of Magnolia in Game 6 of their semifinals duel seven days ago.
The Beermen came off a 100-89 triumph over Meralco in Game 7 of their semis duel last Wednesday.
TNT coach Chot Reyes, who will temporarily leave the Tropang Giga coaching chores to assistants Sandy Arespacochaga and Yuri Escueta in Games 2 and 3 to call the shots for Gilas’ tiff against Lebanon in the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers on Friday in Beirut, said it was his troops’ effort that proved to be among the keys.
“There were really two options there (in the last play). There was some misdirection, but the key was number one you got to get open, number two you know that with 1.6 seconds, you have one more dribble. This is something that we practice,” Reyes said.
“In the end it’s great that Jayson made the shot, but the better thing was we gave ourselves a chance, we gave ourselves a crack at it and the key was the stop we made in the previous possession when we forced San Miguel into a 24-second violation,” he added.
A Perez bucket gave SMB a 45-30 spread at the 1:52 mark of the second quarter, before the Tropang Giga made it 37-49 at the half.
TNT charged back and took a 70-64 lead heading into the payoff period that it padded to as much as 79-69 on a Pogoy layup, still 7:49 to go.
June Mar Fajardo paced the Beermen with 24 points and 16 rebounds, while Perez added 21 and six.
Jericho Cruz also got 10 points for SMB.