TNT banked on its superior firepower in the final period after a tight first three quarters to take down Rain or Shine, 116-99, in Game 1 of the best-of-three Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup quarterfinals series Friday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Calvin Oftana and RR Pogoy provided the 1-2 punch of offense while veterans Kelly Williams and Jayson Castro backed them up as the Tropang Giga got a foot in the semifinals.
TNT took away the running game of the Elasto Painters, who lead the league in fastbreak, and held down Rain or Shine’s main scorer Beau Belga to his worst offensive performance in the conference.
The Tropang Giga limited the Elasto Painters’ fastbreak points to only four and Belga had a terrible shooting night with a paltry five points from 2-of-10 field goal shooting.
“The key we felt was to control Beau because Beau is really I think the heart and soul of this team. I thought if we could defend him, there’s no way we can really stop him, then that would increase our chances of winning. I think we we’re able to achieve that,” TNT coach Chot Reyes said.
“We were able to defend a lot better thee first time we played them. This is the top scoring team in the league. They lead the league in the total field goal percentage so our focus during practice was really to defend, force them to tough shots and hopefully make them miss.”
The Tropang Giga can close the series on Sunday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
Oftana was on fire especially in the third quarter where he scored 18 of his game-high 32 points when TNT began to create a separation. He shot 12-of-19 from the field and pulled down nine rebounds for TNT, which connected 15 triples.
Pogoy had 26 markers with five assists and two boards, Williams had a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds while Castro added 11 for the Tropang Giga, who poured 31 points in the final canto.
TNT built its biggest, 108-87, after Oftana nailed a three-pointer with 5:58 left.
Santi Santillan led Rain or Shine with 23 points, Mark Borboran got 13 markers while Keith Datu and Andrei Caracut had 11 points each. Jhonard Clarito finished with 10 markers while Adrian Nocum struggled with just seven.
Box scores:
TNT (116) –-- Oftana 32, Pogoy 26, K.Williams 19, Castro 11, Khobuntin 8, B.Ganuelas-Rosser 8, Aurin 4, Montalbo 3, Ponferrada 3, Heruela 2, Varilla 0, Galinato 0
RAIN OR SHINE (99) –-- Santillan 23, Borboran 13, Datu 11, Caracut 11, Clarito 10, Ildefonso 8, Nocum 7, Demusis 6, Belga 5, Mamuyac 4, Asistio 1, Norwood 0
Quarters: 26-24, 53-52, 85-79, 116-99
