TNT came knocking on the quarterfinals door after taking down Barangay Ginebra, 91-86, for a sixth straight win in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup Friday night at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.   

The Tropang Giga broke free from a tight race early in the payoff period but needed to fight off an endgame scare by the Kings in their first meeting since the Governors’ Cup finals to solidify their hold of the top spot with a 6-2 win-loss card.

Calvin Oftana showed the way for TNT, scoring a game-high 32 points including two crucial foul shots with 6.4 seconds left to secure the win after Ginebra reinforcement Justin Brownlee made a personal 6-0 run to cut the Tropang Giga’s lead to just three points.

Two-time Best Import winner Rondae Hollis-Jefferson finished with 25 points including an impressive 13-for-13 from the freethrow line, grabbed 13 rebounds and dished out six assists with two steals and a block for an all-around performance for TNT. JP Erram had 10 markers.

The Tropang Giga created a 12-point gap, 87-75, with 4:16 left in the game following a pair of charities by Hollis-Jefferson.

Ginebra behind Brownlee slowly chipped away TNT’s lead.

“We had a 10-point lead in the last four minutes and it wasn’t safe. We had no disillusions. We knew that they will come back so for us to just do our best and defend their main weapons, Justin, Troy (Rosario) and Stephen (Holt) hit those huge three-pointers in the corner down the stretch,” Tropang Giga head coach Chot Reyes said.

“But like I said, we defend somebody we’re bound to leave somebody open. Those are just the tradeoffs that we have to make. Luckily, we won in those tradeoffs, that’s what happened in the end.”

The Kings slid to a 6-4 card.

Brownlee had 20 points and 16 rebounds in a lost cause. Holt got 18 markers while Rosario scored 16 points and had eight boards against his former team.

The scores:

TNT (91) --- Oftana 32, Hollis-Jefferson 25, Erram 10, Castro 9, Pogoy 6, Razon 3, Aurin 3, Khobuntin 3, Galinato 0, K.Williams 0, Heruela 0

GINEBRA (86) –-- Brownlee 20, Holt 18, Rosario 16, Thompson 9, Abarrientos 8, J.Aguilar 7, Malonzo 6, Ahanmisi 2

Quarters:  22-25, 45-46, 68-64, 91-86