RIZAL, Philippines – It did not take long for TNT to send NLEX crashing back to earth.
Just when the Road Warriors were building up confidence, the Tropang Giga scored a dominant 109-91 victory to regain control of their PBA Governors’ Cup quarterfinals at the Ynares Center in Antipolo on Sunday, September 29.
Glenn Khobuntin delivered from long distance, dropping 17 points on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting from three-point range as TNT seized a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five affair.
The Tropang Giga notched the most lopsided win of the series after a narrow 93-90 loss last game that allowed NLEX to pull level at 1-1.
“For any team in this league to win by a big margin, it has to be a combination of good defense with good offense. Finally tonight, we were able to get both together,” said TNT head coach Chot Reyes.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson turned in a near triple-double effort of 27 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists in the wire-to-wire triumph as he outdueled Road Warriors import DeQuan Jones.
Jones finished with just 16 points and 10 rebounds — a far cry from his 38-point, 12-rebound performance in Game 2 after being the focal point of the Tropang Giga defense.
With Jones contained, TNT mounted a commanding 61-40 halftime lead — with Hollis-Jefferson and Rey Nambatac each scoring 12 points and Khobuntin tallying 10 points in the first half — and cruised the rest of the way.
Calvin Oftana netted his highest scoring output of the series with 18 points, including the triple that gave the Tropang Giga their biggest lead at 108-82.
TNT made 15 of its 33 three-point attempts for a healthy 46% clip.
“They were really giving certain players of ours open looks. And they were banking on the fact that they would shut down the lane for Rondae, who is specifically our penetrator,” said Reyes.
“We showed them that in the video yesterday in practice and said, ‘You’re getting open looks. Just do your job.’ We’re not asking anyone to be Superman. If you’re open, shoot.”
Like Khobuntin, Nambatac fired 17 points on top of 6 rebounds and 4 assists.
Robbie Herndon paced NLEX in scoring with 17 points, while Robert Bolick posted a double-double of 12 points and 10 assists with 4 rebounds.
The Scores
TNT 109 – Hollis-Jefferson 27, Oftana 18, Khobuntin 17, Nambatac 17, Williams 11, Pogoy 8, Castro 6, Erram 4, Aurin 1, Heruela 0, Payawal 0, Ebona 0, Galinato 0.
NLEX 91 – Herndon 17, Jones 16, Bolick 12, Policarpio 11, Anthony 9, Valdez 6, Torres 6, Mocon 4, Semerad 3, Rodger 3, Nieti 2, Amer 2, Nermal 1, Miranda 0.
Quarters : 32-21, 61-40, 89-68, 109-91.
– Rappler.com
