SMART Clark Giga City - NLEX succeeded where so many have failed, pulling the rug from under TNT 109-98 Thursday to keep its flickering hopes alive in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart 5G-powered AUF Sports Arena.
A balanced offensive coupled with a pesky defense that hardly gave way did the trick for the Road Warriors as they stopped the Tropang Giga's five-game winning streak while scoring their second win in seven games overall.
For NLEX coach Yeng Guiao, the law of averages also played a big part.
"I think this is the proudest I've been since we came in the bubble. We did a good job on defense, But I guess TNT has been playing really well in the past three weeks and this was bound to be a bad night for them," said Guiao.
"We just caught them on their bad night. S'werte kami. It just so happened that we played better defense, or a little better defense, than our previous games. Those two things just combined for today. Medyo malas sila, medyo gumanda depensa namin kaya siguro natsambahan namin."
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The work is hardly done for NLEX. It still has to hurdle its last four assignments, starting with Rain or Shine on Monday, before entertaining real hopes of advancing to the eight-team quarterfinals.
"I hope it's not too late," said Guiao. "We'd just try to win as many games as we can and try to get better every day."
The Road Warriors did their own part to complement the luck Guiao was talking about with Kevin Alas shaking off a bloodied nose he suffered during a collision with Jayson Castro just before halftime to finish with a team-high 24 points and six rebounds.
Alas was at his fieriest during the fourth quarter where he scored 11 of his points, mostly on drives that repeatedly shredded TNT's defense.
Jericho Cruz and Kiefer Ravena also came up big, scoring 19 and 16 points, respectively, with the latter making a couple of big plays capped by a booming 3 that gave NLEX a 104-96 spread and practically sealed the deal with only 50 seconds left.
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Castro had a game-high 27 points but he was the only bright spot for TNT on this particular night as Roger Pogoy, Bobby Ray Parks, Troy Rosario and Poy Erram all came up with sub-par performances.
For a while, though, it seemed the Tropang Giga were ready to turn things around when Parks and Castro made successive baskets that brought them within 96-101, still 1:35 left.
Things looked even brighter for TNT when Cruz missed his triple try.
But Ravena came up with the offensive rebound and, following a timeout, made his triple that effectively quashed the threat. (NC)
The scores:
NLEX 109 - Alas 24, Cruz 19, Ravena 16, Miranda 8, Ayonayon 8, Quinahan 8, Semerad 7, Soyud 6, McAloney 6, Varilla 5, Porter 2, Paniamogan 0, Ighalo 0, Galanza 0, Taulava 0.
TnT 98 - Castro 27, Pogoy 16, Parks 15, Enciso 11, Rosario 11, Erram 9, Reyes 7, De Leon 2, Carey 0, Alejandro 0, Semerad 0, Montalbo 0, Washington 0, Vosotros 0, Flores 0.
Quarters:24-32, 53-48, 75-67, 109-98.
