Rey Nambatac announced his return from a five-month layoff with a 22-point explosion to power TNT to a 93–78 win over Phoenix for a great start in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Philippine Cup on Friday at the Ynares Center-Montalban.    

The veteran guard displayed his scoring prowess that the Tropang 5G sorely missed in a failed grand slam bid in the previous all-Filipino conference last season after suffering a groin injury, as he shot 9-of-14 from the field.

Nambatac had six rebounds and dished out three assists for TNT, which nailed 15 three-pointers.

“I just try to do my job for the team as a facilitator first. My role is to get our shooters involved especially now that we have additional shooters like Kevin (Ferrer) for them to get their rhythm,” Nambatac said.

New acquisition Kevin Ferrer swished in four triples on five attempts and finished with 12 points while Simon Enciso also had 12 markers on 4-of-7 three-point clip for the Tropang 5G, who only had 10 active players on the bench with the absence of Jordan Heading and Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser.  

Glenn Khobuntin did a great job defending and making Fuel Masters forward Jason Perkins work for his points while Jio Jalalon had significant contributions in his first game for TNT with four points and seven rebounds.

Phoenix only had 14 points in the third quarter as the Tropang 5G pulled away for good.

Perkins got 12 points on 6-of-13 shooting, Tyler Tio also had 12 while Kai Ballungay and Ken Tuffin added 11 and 10 markers, respectively, for Phoenix.

Box scores:

TNT (93) --- Nambatac 22, Oftana 15, Enciso 12, Ferrer 12,  Khobuntin 9, Pogoy 8, Galinato 8, Jalalon 4, Williams 3, Hill 0

PHOENIX (78) --- Tio 12, Perkins 12, Ballungay 11, Tuffin 10, Nelle 9, Rivero 8, Santos 6, Manganti 5, Jazul 3, Taha 2, Caperal 0

Quarter scores: 22-21, 45-42, 66-56, 93-78