PBA: Injury-laden TNT still surges 5th straight win at Magnolia’s expense

With under a minute left to play, TNT import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson attacked Magnolia counterpart Shabazz Muhammad, initiated some contact, and then hit a fallaway bank shot.

That gave the defending champion Tropang Giga enough cushion to get the better of the Hotshots, 84-82, in their highly-physical PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup encounter on Tuesday, September 17.

TNT, which was missing the services of Rey Nambatac (shoulder injury) and Kim Aurin (illness), thus scored a fifth straight win for a league-best 7-1 win-loss record in Group A, padding a lead in a pool that also features Meralco, Converge, NorthPort, and Terrafirma.

After the former Best Import’s basket, Paul Lee responded with a stepback three-pointer over RR Pogoy for the three ball-starved Hotshots with 14.4 left to play to close in, 82-78.

In the ensuing play, Magnolia intercepted an erratic inbound pass from Kelly Williams to Hollis-Jefferson, but Lee turned the ball over right away.

Jayson Castro then had no troubles sinking the two free throws for good measure, making it 84-78 TNT with 6.3 seconds left to play.

The Hotshots, who missed veteran guard Marck Barroca in the final three minutes after receiving an inadvertent elbow from Williams, threatened one final comeback after Jerrick Ahanmisi nailed a four-pointer.

But with 1.1 ticks left, that only sealed the final tally as the Hotshots dropped to 4-4 with the loss.

Without some of their gunners, the bulk of the responsibility fell on Hollis-Jefferson, who finished with a monster line of 29 points and 25 rebounds.

Before the game at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, RHJ was averaging over seven assists but only had two this time around. Still, his work on the boards more than made up for his lack of dimes for this particular outing.

Pogoy fired 19 points including a four-point field goal, while Calvin Oftana added 10 points and nine rebounds for the Tropang Giga.

“We knew we would struggle tonight offensively because we don’t have two of our best outside shooters,” said TNT coach Chot Reyes, referring to Nambatac and Aurin.

“That was the challenge for us, if we could find ways to score absent our two of our top gunners.”

Muhammad paced Magnolia with 30 points and 17 rebounds, but could not come up with anything in the final period.

Lee finished with 13 points, five rebounds, and three assists, while Ahanmisi and Barroca had 12 and 10 points, respectively, for the Hotshots.

The Scores:

TNT 84 – Hollis-Jefferson 29, Pogoy 19, Oftana 10, Castro 9, Williams 9, Khobuntin 4, Heruela 3, Erram 1, Exciminiano 0, Vosotros 0, Varilla 0.

MAGNOLIA 82 – Muhammad 30, Lee 13, Ahanmisi 12, Barroca 10, Lucero 10, Dela Rosa 2, Abueva 2, Laput 2, Dionisio 1, Mendoza 0, Sangalang 0.