ANTIPOLO. – Amid the dark clouds hovering outside the Ynares Center here Sunday night, the dark jersey-clad defending champion TNT’s game proved to be as clear as day against hapless NLEX.
Boosted by a fast start and a sustained charge, the Tropang Giga mauled the Road Warriors 109-91 in Game 3 of their best-of-5 quarterfinals duel in the PBA Governors’ Cup.
Reigning best import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson skied high for an offensive rebound off a Rey Nambatac missed three-point attempt, tapped the ball back to Nambatac, cut to the foul line before receiving the pass for a jumper that he handily sank.
Hollis-Jefferson’s basket pushed TNT’s edge to 105-80 with 4:18 left, typifying the Tropang Giga’s furious fightback from a sorry 90-93 loss to NLEX in the second game of the race-to-3 series last Friday and seizing a 2-1 lead.
Ginebra and San Miguel Beer, both with 2-0 leads, try to show the door on Meralco and Converge, respectively, in Game 3 of their Last Eight showdowns today at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.
In this veritable chess match against fellow many-time champion counterpart Jong Uichico of the Road Warriors, TNT coach Chot Reyes succeeded in pulling off the needed adjustments.
“All of our discussion in practice was just to make adjustments on our defense and then as well as to counter the (Road Warriors) adjustments they made in Game 2 with their defense,” Reyes said. “They gave us a lot of problems on offense. We turned the ball over 16 times in the last game which was way beyond our average.
“That was because of the defensive adjustments they made so we made sure that the players were aware of it, and they did a good job responding to everything that they showed them,” he added.
Hollis-Jefferson notched game-highs of 27 points and 12 rebounds, to go with eight assists for the Tropang Giga, while Calvin Oftana chipped in 18 markers, five boards and three dimes.
Glenn Khobuntin boomed in all his five triple tries and finished with 17 points while Nambatac and Kelly Williams had 17 and 11 markers, respectively, for TNT.
The Tropang Giga will try to advance to the semifinals in the fourth tiff set tomorrow at the Malate venue.
A deciding fifth match, if necessary, will be played on Saturday also at the Ynares Center.
TNT came out with guns blazing and took a 61-40 advantage at the half it padded to 89-68 going into the fourth canto.
An Oftana trey stretched the Tropang Giga’s lead to as much as 108-82, only 3:21 left.
Robbie Herndon scored 17 points for NLEX while reinforcement DeQuan Jones was held to a measly 16-point outing although he grabbed 10 caroms.
Robert Bolick and rookie Jonnel Policarpio also combined for 23 for the Road Warriors.
The Tropang Giga have weathered the initial storm, but can they do it anew against NLEX’s expected charge in Game 4?
