TNT routs Meralco for 2-0 semis series lead

TNT floored the gas pedal from start to finish in a convincing 109-92 Game 2 victory over Meralco to erect a 2-0 lead in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Philippine Cup semifinals best-of-seven semifinals series on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

In contrast to their come-from-behind win in the series opener, the Tropang 5G this time around had a great start and sustained their assault for a wire-to-wire win.

“We wrote on the board, at the very top of our board today, was just the word: better. We wanted to be better than the first half of the last game. We wanted to be better than the entire game of the last game and that's simply our thinking and our mentality coming into this ballgame,” TNT head coach Chot Reyes said after his team’s domination compared to Game 1 where they needed to overhaul a 21-point deficit.

“Better defense, better rebounding, better execution, (1:48) better effort, better communication,” he added.

“So, I think we did a good job of coming out better today than we did in the last game.”

TNT will try to move closer to a fourth straight finals appearance in Game 3 on Friday.

Calvin Oftana led the Tropang 5G with 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds while Jordan Heading and Kelly Willians had 24 and 12 markers, respectively.

RR Pogoy finished with 12 points and Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser added 11 markers for TNT, who shot 12-of-28 from the three-point area while limiting the Bolts to 1-of-14 from the trifecta.

The Tropang 5G led by as many as 24, building a 103-79 advantage off a Heading trey with 3:28 left.

Meralco missed its first 12 attempts from the three-point area before Kurt Reyson nailed one with 1:16 left and the game already decided.

Chris Newsome and Cliff Hodge finished with 18 points each and Bong Quinto had 13 for the Bolts.