TNT’S Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was feted with the Best Import award before the match against defending champion Ginebra.
In a fitting response, he proved why he is the best among reinforcements in the season-ending tourney last night.
With Hollis-Jefferson showing the way, the Tropang Giga got back at the Kings, scoring a 116-104 victory in Game 4 of their best-of-7 finals duel for the PBA Governors’ Cup crown before a jampacked crowd at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Before 16,203 fans, Hollis-Jefferson wound up with game-highs of 36 points and 10 rebounds, to go with five assists for TNT, while veteran playmaker Jayson Castro backed him up with 17 markers, two boards and two dimes.
Calvin Oftana, Mikey Williams, and Kib Montalbo all had 16 points as the Tropang Giga, who missed the services of gunner Roger Pogoy (fractured finger), redeemed themselves from a 103-117 loss to Ginebra in the third game three days ago.
Pogoy has been ruled out of the Big Dance.
More importantly, TNT evened the race-to-4 series at 2-2 and dragged it to a best-of-3.
The pivotal Game 5 is set on Wednesday also at the Big Dome.
The Tropang Giga shot 21 three-pointers– a finals record in the pro league.
Naturalized Filipino Justin Brownlee paced the Kings with 28 points, five caroms and four dimes, while reigning MVP Scottie Thompson had 22 and nine.
Jamie Malonzo, Christian Standhardinger, Stanley Pringle, and Von Pessumal also contributed 17, 10, 10, and 10 markers, respectively for Ginebra.
Also sharing the spotlight in the short awarding rites is Standhardinger, who bagged the Best Player of the Conference plum, his second overall.
The Fil-German Standhardinger won the feat in a runaway fashion over Pogoy and San Miguel Beer’s CJ Perez.
Standhardinger totaled 1,110 points in clinching his second BPC award after first winning it during the same edition of the Third Conference in 2019 while still with NorthPort.
In doing so, the 6-foot-8 Standhardinger became the fourth player to win the award with different ball clubs after Willie Miller, Eric Menk, and Calvin Abueva.
He emerged no. 1 in statistics with 534 points and topped both the players’ and media votes, with 506 and 70, respectively.
Hollis-Jefferson edged three-time winner Brownlee in winning the award named after the late great Bobby Parks.
The former NBA cager amassed 1,147 points to emerge as No. 1 in statistics (619) and media votes (457), while winding up a close second in players’ votes with 71.
