TNT outlasts Magnolia to seal QF spot
Jayson Castro PBA PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines: Veterans Kelly Williams and Jayson Castro delivered when it mattered to lift TNT to a pulsating 98-93 win over Magnolia en route to securing a quarterfinals berth in the PBA Philippine Cup on Sunday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The evergreen Williams fired 19 points, to go along with eight rebounds and four assists, while Castro scattered 18 and seven dimes.
The win allowed the Tropang Giga to avoid any playoff complications and instead, close the elimination round with a a 6-5 record.
More importantly, TNT secured the no. 4 seed entering the quarterfinal round.
“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 after the game.
“I’ve talked about the need for us to play a complete 48-minute game. 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 recall that we were not down by a double-digit margin,” he added.
Brian Heruela, Calvin Oftana and Jewel Ponferrada fired 10 or more points for the Tropang Giga, who took advantage of the Hotshots’ bad shooting start.
The Hotshots closed the eliminations with a 6-5 slate but because of their inferior quotient, the wards of coach Chito Victolero could drop to as low as no. 7 seed, depending on the outcome of the Barangay Ginebra-NLEX game later Sunday.