ROGER Pogoy was there to bring life to TNT's offense, resulting in its 98-91 win over Rain or Shine Wednesday in a match kicking off the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals duels at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Pogoy scored a game-high 28 points, 13 coming in the fourth quarter that both sparked and fueled the Tropang 5G's decisive break from the clutches of the Elasto Painters, who waged a torrid fightback from a 60-69 deficit to threaten within a point, the last at 72-73.
When the likes of Poy Erram and Simon Enciso joined in, TNT even stretched its lead to as much as 88-79 before Calvin Oftana chiefly handled business, mostly from charities, in the final 1:32 of the game that gave their side the headstart in the best-of-seven series.
Erram wound up with 16 points and 13 rebounds while Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Oftana put up their own double-doubles with 13-10 and 12-10, respectively. But it was his team's increased defensive tenacity which pleased coach Chot Reyes even more.
"I thought our defense held. We know that Rain or Shine is the second highest scoring team in the league with 108, 110 points a game. So we really wanted to keep them to, if possible, below 90. We almost did that except we gave up a lot of fouls in the end," said Reyes.
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"So I think that was the difference-maker. Our ability to force them to play halfcourt and when they play halfcourt we've got a better chance of defending them," added Reyes.
Should TNT prevail anew on Friday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium it would also come close to duplicating its 4-1 conquest of Rain or Shine in both the Governors' Cup and Commissioner's Cup semifinals earlier in the season.
Reyes insisted he and his team are focused on the present. "Hindi na namin iniisip nakaraan. The past series is already history so that's farthest from our mind," he said.
"We wanted to make sure that we keep our focus only on this game, on these 48 minutes," added Reyes. "We're only concerned with the present and right now our only concern is the next game."
Andrei Caracut had 16 points to lead Rain or Shine, which drew at least 12 points from four other Elasto Painters, who shot 35-of-86 from the field, including 8-of-35 from beyond the shorter arc.
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Also as costly for the E-Painters was their failure to keep up with the Tropa in the rebounding battle, resulting in the latter's 59-44 dominance off the boards, including a 15-8 advantage in second chance points.
All those helped TNT to wriggle free from a game that had a total of nine deadlocks and eight lead changes and Rain or Shine to lose a couple of five-point leads, the last at 51-46, it built up from a 41-all standoff at the half. (NC)
