DEFENDING champion TNT turned coach Chot Reyes’ inspirational message to game and the Tropang Giga were amply rewarded with a lofty goal against a listless Converge crew yesterday.
With prolific sophomore guard Mikey Williams showing the way, the Tropang Giga smothered the FiberXers 116-95 to advance to the semifinals of the PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Williams dazzled with a game-high 26 points, 22 of them coming in a decisive second quarter breakaway, to go with four assists, while Troy Rosario, finally healed from a knee injury, backed him up with 18 markers and seven rebounds.
Roger Pogoy and Jayson Castro added 16 and 15 points, respectively, while Kelly Williams had 10 for the No. 2 and twice-to-beat Tropang Giga, who refused to slow down despite a 17-day break since ripping Ginebra 106-92 last July 10 in their last eliminations outing.
The runaway triumph enabled TNT to forge a best-of-7 semis clash opposite the winner of the Magnolia-NLEX quarterfinals battle.
The Hotshots hold a 1-0 lead in their race-to-2 battle and will try to finish off the Road Warriors in Game 2 today.
Seventh seed Converge bowed out of its maiden conference in the pro league after failing to sustain the grit it showed in its 92-90 squeaker over Blackwater last Wednesday.
Reyes said his charges got the needed motivation after he told them the story of his cousin who passed away last week.
“I just wanted to say something that I shared with the players earlier. Remember my acceptance speech with my Coach of the Year award? I mentioned my baby cousin who was in the ICU in the US. Last week, while I was in Jakarta, she passed away, unfortunately but she was able to give birth to her baby boy,” Reyes said.
“I told the story to the players before the game just to remind them that this life that we have, this is short and that we should take advantage of every opportunity and not take anything for granted because what we have here, this advantage that we have coming in, it could be gone very easily,” he added.
The Tropang Giga broke the game wide-open and took a 70-42 spread at the half and were in command 97-67 heading into the final canto.
TNT hardly met resistance from the FiberXers from there and stretched the difference to as much as 116-83 on a JD Tungcab layup at the 4:06 mark of the fourth.
