Heading to Finals

Game tomorrow:

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)

7:30 p.m. — San Miguel vs Ginebra

TNT weathered Meralco’s fourth quarter storm, led by red-hot CJ Cansino, to advance to a fourth straight championship appearance.

Rey Nambatac drilled a crucial four-pointer in the last 21 seconds that ignited the Tropang 5G’s closing 8-0 run for a dramatic 99-96 Game 5 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Philippine Cup semifinals series clincher on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

TNT flirted with disaster after squandering an early 15-point lead and trailed by five with 27.9 ticks left before pulling off a shocker to emerge victorious in the best-of-seven showdown, 4-1.

The Tropang 5G will wait for their finals opponent between defending champion San Miguel Beer and Barangay Ginebra, who were disputing the semis series lead as of press time.

Jordan Heading finished with 31 points on 11-of-20 field goal shooting, with his last bucket serving as the go-ahead basket after a steal over Cansino with 15.1 seconds left following Nambatac’s four-pointer, for TNT, which played sans injured guard RR Pogoy (hamstring).

Nambatac had 25 points he capped with the game-sealing two foul shots in the last 6.4 seconds for the final count. Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser added 12 markers while Calvin Oftana got 10 points and made up for a sorry turnover during the Bolts’ scary run by blocking Cansino’s attempt to retake the lead with TNT protecting a one-point lead in the endgame.

Meralco’s a hell of a team. They refused to quit and kept coming back and kept bouncing back. We’re just fortunate we got a couple of breaks with Chris Newsome’s injury and (Jansen) Rios’ injury as well. It really took our best today to be able to come out victorious,” Tropang 5G coach Chot Reyes said.

TNT built an 86-76 cushion with 5:46 left in the match before Cansino caught fire. He sank a four-pointer to spark a 14-2 run, 12 coming from the sophomore punctuated by a putback for a 90-88 Bolts advantage with 2:21 left.

Cliff Hodge’s split from the line gave Meralco its biggest lead, 96-91, with 27.9 seconds left before Nambatac’s decisive long bomb.

Heading was able to swipe the ball away from Cansino off the inbound for an easy basket. Oftana was called for a traveling a couple of plays back and swatted Cansino’s attempt off a drive before Nambatac’s charities.

Meralco had one last chance to salvage the game but Cansino’s four-pointer came up short.

Cansino had a career-best 36 points on 12-of-20 shooting clip while Aaron Black scored 17 for the Bolts, who played without Newsome (knee) for the second straight game.

Injury woes continued to bite Meralco hard after Jansen Rios, who kept the Bolts in the game with timely baskets and hustle plays, suffered a sprained right knee after colliding with Heading’s knee with 3:16 left in the third canto.