Games today:
(Ninoy Aquino Stadium)
5:15 p.m. — Terrafirma vs NLEX
7:30 p.m. — Magnolia vs TNT
Defending champion TNT had a hard time shaking off clingy guest team Macau but still found a way to pull through with a 119–112 rebound win in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Tropang 5G dodged the bullet when Damian Chongqui missed a potential go-ahead four-pointer in the last 16 seconds before TNT secured its sixth win in nine games from the stripes.
Seven-foot-3 Bol Bol got his usual numbers with 37 points on 16-of-30 field goal shooting, grabbed 14 rebounds and swatted away six Black Knights attempts for the Tropang 5G’s bounce back from a 92-97 loss to Converge last Wednesday.
Jordan Heading had 20 points, including six straight free throws in the last 23 seconds to wrap up the match, while Bandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Calvin Oftana had 17 and 16 points, respectively, for TNT, which knocked in 10 triples.
“Compared to the last game where we shot 10 percent from the three-point line at least we made 30 percent of our three-point shots. For me that’s a little bit of progress. We were able to solve our offensive issues from the last game,” Tropang 5G head coach Chot Reyes said.
“However, we got to give credit to Macau. They moved the ball very well. They attacked us really well. Players like Chongqui, is really a tough match up for us because we don’t have Jio Jalalon, whose job that is. We just kept reminding the guys during the huddles, during timeouts, even when they were making runs to just grind-it out and I think in the end that’s what happened. We made a few key stops that led to the victory,” he added.