TNT regained its shooting touch on Wednesday on its way to a 95-82 win over Barangay Ginebra on Wednesday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum to even the 2023 PBA Governors’ Cup finals at one game apiece.
TNT vs Ginebra Game 2 recap
The Tropang GIGA made 15 threes, a couple of which came in a key stretch in the fourth quarter, while also taking advantage of the struggles of Justin Brownlee to equalize.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson had 23 points, 19 rebounds, and nine assists, while Mikey Williams and Roger Pogoy had 21 and 17 points apiece including threes to pull away from Ginebra in the final minutes.
With TNT’s lead down four, Pogoy nailed a three to break Ginebra’s momentum with 4:31 left in the contest to start a pivotal 13-2 closeout to the contest.
Williams then nailed another trey that pushed the lead to 88-80, before hitting another three to make it a 93-80 ballgame. Hollis-Jefferson put the finishing touches to the win with a slam.
Christian Standhardinger had 29 points and 11 rebounds but the story for Ginebra was the struggles of Brownlee.
The Ginebra import was limited to a conference-low 12 points on 3-of-16 from the field. He had 10 rebounds and eight assists, but was sorely missed on offense as he missed all his five threes.
For TNT, they bounced back from a poor shooting performance in Game One where they hit 9 out of 35 shots from the outside.
“They refused to lose tonight,” said TNT coach Jojo Lastimosa. “They know that we cannot go into this game behind 0-2. They know that this is a must-win for us. The guys just decided in practices that we are not going to take this lightly and we need to be doing the first punches and not be reactive to what they do.”
TNT got off to a strong start and never trailed in Game Two. The Tropang GIGA posted a 41-25 lead on a lay-up by Williams, the biggest lead of the contest.
It appeared that Ginebra was able to shift the momentum when it trailed by only three, 67-64, at the end of the third after a 7-0 finish to the quarter. Jamie Malonzo also nailed a triple to cut the deficit to 82-78 but only scored two field goals the rest of the way.
The scores:
TNT 95 – Hollis-Jefferson 23, M. Williams 21, Pogoy 17, Oftana 14, Khobuntin 8, Castro 8, Erram 4, Montalbo 0, Marcelo 0, Ganuelas-Rosser 0.
Barangay Ginebra 82 – Standhardinger 29, Malonzo 17, Thompson 16, Brownlee 12, Pringle 5, Gray 3, Pinto 0, David 0, Mariano 0.
Quarters: 27-16; 51-39; 67-64; 95-82.
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