LEARNING their lesson from their sorry loss the last time out, the TNT Tropang Giga focused on one big adjustment in this one - playing smart.
And doing that, the Tropa bounced back strong from their upset by the NLEX Road Warriors with a 93-85 conquest of the Magnolia Hotshots Friday in the PBA Governors' Cup at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
"We played a lot smarter today than against NLEX," said coach Jojo Lastimosa on one big factor leading to their third win in four starts in the season-ending tourney.
"The NLEX game was a lesson learned. And that proved that our guys are good students. They stayed aggressive and played solid basketball up to the end," Lastimosa also said.
The Tropa actually faced the spectre of a repeat of their last outing, with their 82-66 spread chopped down to 85-83 with 3:59 left to play.
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But just as the Hotshots threatened to within that count largely behind the hot hands of Paul Lee, the Tropa came alive again and unleashed an 8-2 closing salvo to preserve the win this time.
RR Pogoy, Kelly Williams and Jalen Hudson starred in that run, with Pogoy firing two charities and a tough turnaround shot to highlight his team-high 20-point juggernaut.
"Credit din sa mga teammates ko. Magagaling sila, kaya nao-open ako. At credit na rin sa pageensayo ko ng husto," said Pogoy, also collecting five rebounds, three assists and three steals in a stellar 37-minute action.
Hudson, Mikee Williams and Calvin Oftana drained 14 points apiece, Kelly Williams chipped in 11 and Jayson Castro contributed nine in a well-distributed TNT scoring negating Lee's 24 points spiked by six three-pointers from way, way out.
Eric Mccree had a double-double with 16 boards and 12 markers but accounted for eight of 22 turnovers committed by the Hotshots.
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TNT blasted Magnolia, 32-6, on points off turnovers, and it proved to be another big key as the Tropa kept the Hotshots winless in two starts.
In their tournament debut, the Hotshots bowed to the Converge FiberXers, 111-109. (SB)
