ALREADY GRAND
Moments after TNT kept its Grand Slam motor running, coach Chot Reyes—after Wednesday’s hard-fought win over Magnolia pushed their PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinal encounter to the limit—said that his team has already defined itself this season.
And the quest to complete a sweep of all three conferences is “not really in our minds,” adding he already considers the 49th season as a successful one, whether the historic bid is achieved or not.
“The guys have done so much already this season,” Reyes said on the heels of the thrilling 89-88 triumph at Philsports Arena in Pasig City. “If the Grand Slam is not for us, it’s not for us. But no one’s gonna take away what we have already achieved this year, this season.”
That doesn’t mean, however, that Reyes and company are content over winning two-thirds of the titles offered this season. And the Tropang 5G, after forcing the Hotshots to reach for their twice-to-beat card, certainly are motivated to repeat over the Hotshots in the decider set on Saturday at Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The winner moves on to face either Rain or Shine or NLEX, two teams that also saw its quarterfinal showdown dragged to a do-or-die victory following the No. 7 Elasto Painters’ 92-89 victory over the No. 2 Road Warriors also last Wednesday.
San Miguel Beer and Barangay Ginebra hope to avoid knockout matches when the sister teams try to get things done by the end of Friday’s doubleheader. The Beermen, seeded first, take on No. 8 Meralco, the defending champion at 5 p.m. while the Gin Kings face dangerous Converge at 7:30 p.m. at Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
San Miguel and Ginebra own twice-to-beat protection.
JMF leads BPC
The stakes, however, are undeniably higher for TNT, which has a chance to join the ranks of Grand Slam-winning teams.
“We had a long talk before practice and we asked them how much they want it,” said Reyes. “If this is something that they really, really want, then it’s going to be really, really hard.”
The Tropang 5G stayed alive despite trailing by 13 in the third quarter and losing a seven-point lead in the final minute of play.
While RR Pogoy dropped 30 points and Calvin Oftana also had his share, TNT also got a huge lift from big man Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser, particularly on the defensive end and even a crucial three in the fourth.
Ganuelas-Rosser finished with 10 points and six rebounds after missing the Tropang 5G’s loss to the same Hotshots in the final game of the elims due to a one-game suspension for his Flagrant Foul 2 against Ginebra.
“It’s a lesson learned, I let my emotions get the best of me and I just made sure that I won’t do that again,” said Ganuelas-Rosser.
Meanwhile, June Mar Fajardo, who will try to send San Miguel to the semifinals by making short work of Meralco, set the pace in the race for the Best Player of the Conference award.
Fajardo posted 40.4 Statistical Points through the end of the eliminations to lead teammate CJ Perez, NLEX’s Robert Bolick, Magnolia’s Zavier Lucero and Oftana.
Perez is second with 38.5 SPs, followed by Bolick with 37.6, Lucero 37.3 and Oftana 35.4.
Forty-five percent of the statistics will be used to determine the winner with the rest coming from votes from the media (30%) and players (25%). The top five players after the semifinals will be the official candidates for the award.
