GAME TOMORROW
(Smart Araneta Coliseum)
5:45 p.m. — SMB vs. TNT
RANGED against a San Miguel Beer five that has able defenders in Chris Ross and a towering June Mar Fajardo, defending champion TNT treated the basketball like it was a precious gem in the fourth game of the Big Dance.
That worked wonders for the Tropang Giga last Sunday night.
“That’s terrific. That’s very hard to do in a 48-minute game especially against a team with very good defenders,” TNT deputy Sandy Arespacochaga, who spoke in lieu of coach Chot Reyes who had to immediately go to Gilas Pilipinas practice, said after the Tropang Giga ripped the Beermen 100-87 in Game 4 of their best-of-7 finals duel for the PBA Philippine Cup title.
“Coach Chot wasn’t asking for perfection, he was asking if we could limit useless turnovers, lack of focus turnovers, iyong mga bagay na ganoon. We are very happy that the players responded,” he added.
True enough, the Tropang Giga only had three turnovers — a record for fewest miscues in a game in the pro league.
“Coach Chot said to make sure that I say that (limiting our) turnovers was very key for us. We had a lot of turnovers in Game 3 with 24 and that’s No. 1 in the list heading to this game,” Arespacochaga said. “So, we’re quite happy with the way the players responded and took care of the ball.”
Veteran playmaker Jayson Castro wound up with a game-high 26 points, on top of six rebounds, and four assists for TNT, while Roger Pogoy chipped in 21 markers, three boards, and two dimes.
Mikey Williams and Kelly Williams also had 15 and 14 points, respectively for the Tropang Giga, who avenged their two straight loses in the finals, including a 100-108 overtime defeat to the Beermen in the third game four nights ago.
More importantly, TNT’s triumph knotted the race-to-4 series at 2-2 and turned the battle into a best-of-3 affair.
“It’s not just on one player, not just on Jayson (Castro) or Mikey (Williams) but everybody across the board and everybody stepped up,” Arespacochaga said. “We also felt everybody stepped up on defense. It was a team effort on both ends of the floor.”
The loss put to naught the 20-point and 19-rebound effort of Fajardo for SMB on the night he was named Best Player of the Conference.
Simon Enciso also got 15 markers, while Marcio Lassiter, Mo Tautuaa, and CJ Perez had 14, 13, and 13 points, respectively for the Beermen.
