LIMPING and all towards the end, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson braved on and delivered clutch plays, leading TNT past Magnolia, 88-82, in a well-fought battle in the PBA Governors' Cup Thursday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Hollis-Jefferson came through with a near triple-double game highlighted by a three-pointer and a breakaway dunk from a steal in the homestretch as the Tropang Giga rebounded from a sorry loss the last time out and regained the lead in Group A with a 3-1 card.
TNT got to a 10-2 windup in what was a defensive battle with Tropa emerging the winning side in holding the Hotshots to two points in the last four minutes of play.
The Tropang Giga shot well from afar with 14 three-point conversions but coach Chot Reyes was convinced it's their defense that won it for them.
"The reason we won was not our three-point shooting but our defense. We scored below 100 and it's not a good score, but we limited them to 82. So defense for me was the key factor," said Reyes.
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"It was tough to the end," said Hollis-Jefferson where both teams made it hard for one another.
"That's the way Magnolia plays, they defend the paint very well. In the vernacular duduguin ka talaga to get the inside baskets," said Reyes.
In the end, the Tropang Giga proved to be the tougher defenders at least in this game where they held the Hotshots almost 20 points below their average in their first two games.
Magnolia dropped to 1-2 with losses to Meralco and TNT, and the lone win against Converge.
Through this tough outing, Hollis-Jefferson still found a way to produce bigtime with 32 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists. He hit at an 11-of-25 clip.
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Rey Nambatac chipped in 15, RR Pogoy 12 and Brian Heruela 10.
Glenn Robinson III scored 19 to pace the Hotshots who also drew double-digit outputs from Zavi Lucero (14), Paul Lee (13), Mark Barroca (12) and Ian Sangalang (11).
At halftime, Barroca was feted by the league after hitting the 2,000 career assists milestone.(SB)
