Tropang 5G stay alive, spoil Beermen party

Game Friday:

(Philsports Arena)

7:30 p.m. — San Miguel vs TNT

TNT forced San Miguel Beer to keep its celebratory beers cold but unopened.

The depleted Tropang 5G, all banged-up, sore and backs against the wall, staved off elimination with a strong 86-78 statement win over the Beermen in Game 5 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup finals Wednesday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

TNT weathered San Miguel’s repeated threat of a comeback after cutting down its 18-point lead to a single digit to extend the best-of-seven series. The grand slam-seeking Tropang 5G stopped a three-game skid to trim their series deficit to 2-3.

“I saw a lot of fight and just the unwillingness to give up,” Tropang 5G head coach Chot Reyes said.

“Our pre-game talk was all about… this has been a very, very long season and we’re down to our final week. Let’s make this our best week. We’ll fight as hard as we can and see what happens.”

Game 6 is on Friday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser provided the spark in the first quarter while Jordan Heading, Kelly Williams and Almond Vosotros played big time to contribute to the cause with TNT playing sans injured center Poy Erram (hamstring) and guard Simon Enciso (fractured orbital bone).

Ganulas-Rosser finished with 18 points and hosted a block party of five shots he swatted away, Williams had 14 markers while Calvin Oftana and Heading got 13 points each for TNT.

Vosotros and Pogoy added 11 markers each.

TNT answered San Miguel’s scare in the second half with a huge 13-0 run to turn a slim 59-55 lead to 72-55 with 8:14 left in the fourth. It even ballooned to 77-59.

The Beermen closed in at 84-76 off a Jericho Cruz triple with 1:24 remaining but the Tropang 5G refused to allow San Miguel to draw closer.

Ganuelas-Rosser fueled TNT’s control of the first half with a 14-point opening quarter explosion. Veteran Kelly Williams backed the center up with his hot hands, connecting four triples that kept the Tropang 5G at a safe distance.

TNT held down the Beermen to just 11 points in the second quarter where it led by as high as 13 markers.

The Tropang 5G even outscored San Miguel underneath, 18-14, with a 31-25 advantage in rebounding. TNT entered the intermission with a 10-point margin.

Cruz had 20 points to pace the Beermen. Marcio Lassiter had 15 while June Mar Fajardo got a double-double of 13 markers and 13 boards in a lost cause.

CJ Perez was limited to just five points and only nailed one of his nine shot attempts for San Miguel.

Meanwhile, the PBA will hold a couple of games in Bahrain late this year as part of the league’s 50th anniversary celebration.

Three teams will see action in the PBA’s first-ever official game in the Middle Eastern island nation slated 15 and 17 December.

PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial and Bahrain Basketball Association President Alaa Mudara announced the slam-bang event during the halftime break of Game 5.

The scores:

TNT (86) --- Ganuelas-Rosser 18, Williams 14, Oftana 13, Heading 13, Pogoy 11, Vosotros 11, Aurin 4, Khobuntin 2, Heruela 0

SAN MIGUEL (78) --– Cruz 20, Lassiter 15, Fajardo 13, Tautuaa 9, Trollano 8, Ross 6, Perez 5, Rosales 2, Brondial 0, Teng 0, Tiongson 0

QUARTERS: 27-20, 41-31, 59-53, 86-78