TNT turned its desire to redeem itself from a woeful campaign in the EASL Champions Week to game and vented its ire on NorthPort yesterday.
Bolstered by a fiery second quarter assault, the Tropang Giga showed the door on the Batang Pier with a 134-110 rout for their seventh straight win and boosted their bid for the No. 1 slot in the PBA Governors’ Cup at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.
Despite fasting due to Ramadan, import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson scattered 31 points, to go with 11 rebounds, three assists and four steals for TNT, while Roger Pogoy banged in six three-pointers and chipped in 22 markers, seven boards and three dimes.
Calvin Oftana and Kelly Williams also had 16 and 12 points, respectively, for the Tropang Giga.
The runaway triumph came on the heels of TNT’s pulsating 105-103 decision over San Miguel Beer last Feb. 19 before the Tropang Giga saw action in the EASL tilt where they lost at the hands of Utsunomiya Brex 66-99 and to the Seoul SK Knights 69-80 last week.
Fighting for dear life, NorthPort failed to do an encore to a 113-97 triumph over Rain or Shine last March 4 and finished the season with a 3-8 slate.
Coach Jojo Lastimosa, whose charges rose to 9-1 ahead of their titanic clash with defending champion Ginebra for the possible top seeding tomorrow, was pleased that TNT recovered from its EASL misadventure.
“I thought when we played the first quarter, we were kinda rusty. I wasn’t really surprised.
But the guys picked it up. Iyong second half namin, iyong second quarter, iyong depensa namin bumalik and iyong outside shots namin pumapasok na,” Lastimosa said. “From there I didn’t realize that we scored 45 points in the second quarter. We were in the groove.
“I was just concerned. When we were in the EASL we were not in a good situation. I was worried about bringing our games from there to over here. Thankfully, hindi naman namin nadala,” he added.
The Tropang Giga raced to a 66-43 spread at the half that they padded to 97-53 on an Oftana three-point play at the 5:05 mark of the third canto.
TNT took a commanding 109-69 lead heading into the payoff period and hardly met resistance from there.
Reinforcement Kevin Murphy carried the fight for NorthPort with 35 points and 10 caroms, while Arvin Tolentino added 19 markers.
Paul Zamar, Robert Bolick, and Joshua Munzon also had 15, 14, and 10 points, respectively, for the Batang Pier.
