ADMITTEDLY still groping for form, TNT continued to carve out wins any way it can, this time an 84-80 victory over Phoenix Super LPG yesterday in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.
Troy Rosario capped a 15-point, eight-rebound performance with the go-ahead basket while the Tropang Giga held the Fuel Masters scoreless in the last three minutes to secure their third straight win in as many games.
The endgame collapse, which saw it go 0-of-5 from the field and commit one turnover, highlighted another exercise in futility for Phoenix as it absorbed a second straight loss and fourth in five games overall.
“I thought Phoenix came in with an excellent gameplan. They prepared for us really well, they knew exactly how we do things,” said TNT coach Chot Reyes, who got a nice gift from his charges on his 58th birthday.
“We started the game really, really flat,” added Reyes. “I guess just the rigors of playing a game (with) just one day’s rest… we’re not yet at that stage where we can come in and play successive games well at this point, I guess.
“Good thing lang… when they went up big, we just kept at it. We went deep into the bench. They kept us in the game until we figured out a way towards the end.”
Matthew Wright led Phoenix with 15 pointsbut committed seven of the team’s 21 turnovers.
Earlier, Rain or Shine went back to what worked for it so well early in the tournament and got away with a slide-stopping 83-77 victory over Terrafirma.
Rey Nambatac snapped out of his shooting slump with a team-high 17 points, but it was Gabe Norwood waxing hot in the fourth quarter that sustained the Elasto Painters’ momentum and completed their rise from an early 16-point deficit.
“We just got back to what got us our first three wins; of just reacting to one another,” said coach Chris Gavina after the Painters cut short a two-game slide and improved to 3-3 overall.
“As you saw in that fourth quarter, we simplified things. We let our guards create more… and we were just reacting more to what the defense was giving us and finding the open man, who was usually Gabe,” added Gavina.
“If we can knock down shots and combine that with that our defense then we can make noise moving forward.
Norwood maintained it was their defense that fired up their offense. “Just our energy. I think we picked it up on the defensive end,” said the seven-time All-Defensive Team member.
“Terrafirma came out and executed everything they wanted and they were making us pay,” added the 36-year-old. “But we finally made stops and usually our defense leads to offense and that’s exactly what happened in the fourth quarter. We just have to be consistent in putting the ball in the basket and I think we’ll be fine from there.”
Norwood practiced what he preaches, making Terrafirma pay dearly for usually leaving him open by scoring eight straight of his 15 points in the final canto, including two triples, that fueled a decisive 18-2 run and gave RoS the lead for good 79-67.
The E-Painters’ defense also held solid as the Dyip were held scoreless during that six-minute span and just five field goals in all in the last 12 minutes of play that enabled the E-Painters to stretch their lead to a high of 82-69.
