Pogoy shines as TNT thumps Alaska

ROGER Pogoy sizzled as the TNT Tropang Giga erased a 17-point first half deficit to topple the Alaska Aces, 100-95, in the PBA Season 45 Philippine Cup at the Angeles University Foundation gym in Angeles City, Pampanga on Sunday.

The Cebuano guard ignited TNT’s offense, unleashing a career-high 45 points on 17-for-29 shooting to help Tropang Giga notch its first win as the PBA resumed inside the bubble.

The pride of Talisay City, Cebu was scorching hot from the rainbow country, converting 10 of his 17 attempts on top of eight rebounds, two assists, three steals, and a block.

It was Pogoy’s impeccable shooting that kept TNT afloat in the first half, where he scored 21 of his team’s 48 points. Then veteran guard Jason Castro came alive in the final moments of the game to deliver the finishing blow.

Castro made a tough contested jump shot that gave the Tropang Giga a 3-point lead with 27 seconds left to play, followed with two free throws to completely ice the game with 14 ticks left.

Castro finished the game with 28 points, five rebounds, two assists and three steals. Pogoy and Castro were the only players for TNT that hit double-figures in scoring.

TNT head coach Bong Ravena said in a post-game news conference that his team merely got lucky.

“Swerte namin nanalo kami sa (We got lucky we won the ) game na ‘to, we barely survived this game. We have player na (that was) thrown out, swerte na napanalo namin (it’s pure luck we won)” said Ravena.

PJ Erram did not show much on his first game in a TNT jersey as he got ejected for a flagrant foul in the first half and a technical foul late in the third quarter.

Ravena lauded Pogoy’s performance.

“Expect namin kay RR (Pogoy) is ‘yung number niya palaging mataas, kailangan ma-sustain niya ang number. ‘Yun nga swerte kami ngayon dahil nakuha niya magandang numbers (We expect RR to always score high, he needs to sustain that number. We got lucky tonight he registered a good number), even Jason Castro played well. The role players helped us a lot also,” said Ravena.

Alaska started out strong with a 16-9 blast to start the first quarter. The lead ballooned to 17 points early in the second quarter.

Abu Tratter finished with 17 points for the Aces, Robert Herndon and Michael Digregorio added 16 points apiece while Vic Manuel scored 15 points.