TNT translated its resolve into game and held off Magnolia,98-93, Sunday to formally clinch a quarterfinals berth in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Kelly Williams and Jayson Castro led the way for the Tropang Giga, who went into the game trying to avoid a loss that would have relegated them into a knockout game for the final berth in the last eight.
Brian Heruela, Calvin Oftana and Jewel Ponferrada also helped big-time, enabling TNT to rebound from a shock 103-107 loss to Converge last May 1 and end up the eliminations with a 6-5 record that not only gave it a QF ticket but a No. 4 seeding.
Tropa coach Chot Reyes was obviously pleased with the way his charges performed as a sort of preparation for a Best-of-three duel with fifth-cranked Rain or Shine starting Friday.
"The most important thing in this game was the fight and the effort of the players to still come in with a lot of courage to play a very strong Magnolia team," said Reyes.
Sponsored content:
"I've talked about the need for us to play a complete 48-minute game," added Reyes. "All our games, whether we won it or we lost it, we were down by 15 or 16 points. I think this is the first game I can can recall that we were not down by a double-digit margin.
"And that's the area of growth that we wanted to achieve. How can we play at a level where we don't dig ourselves into a hole... And I'm very happy today that today we were finally able to achieve that and we approached this game as the start of the playoffs already."
Williams finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and four assists with Castro adding 18 points and seven dimes.
Heruela, Oftana and Ponferrada tossed in at least 11 points each for the Tropa, who took control of the match right in the second period and seemed ready to do quick work of a Hotshots crew that again suffered from poor shooting.
TNT still had to do a lot of scrambling in the fourth period after Magnolia came charging back from the depths of a 38-56 deficit to trim the deficit to a more manageable level.
Sponsored content:
Each time, however, the Tropa had an answer and the shoe is now on the other foot.
The Hotshots actually also wound up with a 6-5 slate but due to an inferior quotient could be relegated to sixth or as low as seventh, depending on the outcome of the Barangay Ginebra-NLEX game later Sunday.
Should the Kings win, Magnolia takes sixth. But should the Road Warriors prevail then coach Chito Victolero's side drops to seventh and a twin-twice handicap against Ginebra.
Mark Barroca led all scorers with 22 points and Ian Sangalang 21 points and seven boards for Magnolia. (NC)
The Scores:
TNT 98 - K.Williams 19, Castro 18, Heruela 13, Oftana 12, Ponferrada 10, Pogoy 7, Khobuntin 7, B.Ganuelas-Rosser 4, Montalbo 4, Aurin 2, Galinato 2, Varilla 0.
MAGNOLIA 93 - Barroca 22, Sangalang 21, Dionisio 14, Dela Rosa 9, Abueva 7, Jalalon 6, Balanza 5, Lee 3, Laput 2, Reavis 2, Tratter 2, Eriobu 0, Mendoza 0.
QUARTERS: 16-14, 47-36, 80-65, 98-93
