MANILA: Tropang TNT found a finishing kick when Rain or Shine couldn’t.
Sputtering for most of the second half, the Texters closed out with an 11-0 run to seal a 101-98 come-from-behind victory over the Elasto Painters that got their PBA Governors’ Cup bid off to a smashing start on Wednesday night at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
Jason Castro drained the dagger triple with 52.9 seconds remaining to snap the final deadlock at 98 as the Texters pulled out the win despite four blue-chip players, including Gilas Pilipinas standout Troy Rosario, in sick bay.
“We were able to survive this game,” TNT coach Jong Uichico said with a sigh of relief. “We needed this to have a good start to the conference.”
The whirlwind TNT comeback clearly took some of the luster out of Mahindra’s 108-98 win over GlobalPort in the first game, which gave the Enforcers the best start in their young PBA lives.
The Texters trailed by 14 early in the fourth and were still 90-98 down with 6:18 remaining after a Dior Lowhorn basket for the Painters.
It looked like the Elasto Painters were going to go on cruise control from there only for a drought to hit that even Gabe Norwood couldn’t hit two free throws with 2.7 seconds remaining which could have changed the complexion of the hard-fought contest dramatically.
Castro finished with 19 points and 10 assists and again carried a lot of the load for the Texters, who played without Larry Fonacier, former MVP Kelly Williams, Matt Ganuelas-Rosser and the rookie Rosario.
The loss was a painful one for the Painters, who are coming into this tournament looking to win back-to-back titles for the first time in franchise history.
Rain or Shine has been installed as one of the teams to beat in the season-ending conference, especially after signing up the bull-strong Lowhorn, who is in the same mold of Pierre Henderson-Niles, the man who helped them to the Commissioner’s Cup crown two months ago.
But TNT defended Lowhorn well inside the paint and effectively took him out in the latter stages and the rest of the Rain or Shine crew didn’t have better luck as it shot just 13 points in the final quarter to go down in flames.
And while Rain or Shine couldn’t find the bucket in the final 12 minutes, it seemed that the rim was a huge target for the Enforcers, who dropped 38 points in the last quarter against the Batang Pier to win with plenty to spare.
Import James White scored 12, Aldrech Ramos had eight and Asian reinforcement Mashaddy Zandi fired two triples in the final frame for a swashbuckling finish that caught the Batang Pier flat on their feet.
It was the second straight win for the Enforcers, who sealed their best conference start, while dealing GlobalPort a second consecutive defeat.
GlobalPort played without Terrence Romeo, who is down with a stomach virus that had his hospitalized since Tuesday afternoon.
With Romeo out, GlobalPort understandably went to import Dominique Sutton and Stanley Pringle, who couldn’t draw out enough support from the others in the fourth quarter.
James finished with 28 points, 20 rebounds and four blocked shots, while Ramos wound up with 16 while also having two three-pointers in the fourth.
“He’s just scratching the bottom of the barrel,” Mahindra coach Chito Gavina said of White, who is the youngest among the imports at 22. “He still doesn’t realize how good he can be. We’re building his killer mentality and I think he is starting to realize that he can do it.
“His confidence is just growing every game,” added Gavina, who is calling the shots in lieu of the still absent Manny Pacquiao.
Sutton had 34 points and 14 rebounds, while Pringle finished with 19 for the Batang Pier.
Sputtering for most of the second half, the Texters closed out with an 11-0 run to seal a 101-98 come-from-behind victory over the Elasto Painters that got their PBA Governors’ Cup bid off to a smashing start on Wednesday night at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
Jason Castro drained the dagger triple with 52.9 seconds remaining to snap the final deadlock at 98 as the Texters pulled out the win despite four blue-chip players, including Gilas Pilipinas standout Troy Rosario, in sick bay.
“We were able to survive this game,” TNT coach Jong Uichico said with a sigh of relief. “We needed this to have a good start to the conference.”
The whirlwind TNT comeback clearly took some of the luster out of Mahindra’s 108-98 win over GlobalPort in the first game, which gave the Enforcers the best start in their young PBA lives.
The Texters trailed by 14 early in the fourth and were still 90-98 down with 6:18 remaining after a Dior Lowhorn basket for the Painters.
It looked like the Elasto Painters were going to go on cruise control from there only for a drought to hit that even Gabe Norwood couldn’t hit two free throws with 2.7 seconds remaining which could have changed the complexion of the hard-fought contest dramatically.
Castro finished with 19 points and 10 assists and again carried a lot of the load for the Texters, who played without Larry Fonacier, former MVP Kelly Williams, Matt Ganuelas-Rosser and the rookie Rosario.
The loss was a painful one for the Painters, who are coming into this tournament looking to win back-to-back titles for the first time in franchise history.
Rain or Shine has been installed as one of the teams to beat in the season-ending conference, especially after signing up the bull-strong Lowhorn, who is in the same mold of Pierre Henderson-Niles, the man who helped them to the Commissioner’s Cup crown two months ago.
But TNT defended Lowhorn well inside the paint and effectively took him out in the latter stages and the rest of the Rain or Shine crew didn’t have better luck as it shot just 13 points in the final quarter to go down in flames.
And while Rain or Shine couldn’t find the bucket in the final 12 minutes, it seemed that the rim was a huge target for the Enforcers, who dropped 38 points in the last quarter against the Batang Pier to win with plenty to spare.
Import James White scored 12, Aldrech Ramos had eight and Asian reinforcement Mashaddy Zandi fired two triples in the final frame for a swashbuckling finish that caught the Batang Pier flat on their feet.
It was the second straight win for the Enforcers, who sealed their best conference start, while dealing GlobalPort a second consecutive defeat.
GlobalPort played without Terrence Romeo, who is down with a stomach virus that had his hospitalized since Tuesday afternoon.
With Romeo out, GlobalPort understandably went to import Dominique Sutton and Stanley Pringle, who couldn’t draw out enough support from the others in the fourth quarter.
James finished with 28 points, 20 rebounds and four blocked shots, while Ramos wound up with 16 while also having two three-pointers in the fourth.
“He’s just scratching the bottom of the barrel,” Mahindra coach Chito Gavina said of White, who is the youngest among the imports at 22. “He still doesn’t realize how good he can be. We’re building his killer mentality and I think he is starting to realize that he can do it.
“His confidence is just growing every game,” added Gavina, who is calling the shots in lieu of the still absent Manny Pacquiao.
Sutton had 34 points and 14 rebounds, while Pringle finished with 19 for the Batang Pier.
