Glen Rice Jr Saves the day as TNT Avoids Upset, Books Semifinal Slot Against Ginebra

Ugly win against gusty Elasto Painters did the job

Glen Rice Jr. scored 34 points to lead TNT. (Photo by the PBA Media Bureau)

Talk N Text had the chance to make this match-up wrapped in one game. They failed. They came short. Now, both the KaTropa and the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters will have to battle it out for the final time to know who between the two teams will earn the honor of meeting the already-waiting Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings in the semifinals.

Both teams struggled to hold onto the lead, especially in the second half. Both teams didn’t shoot better than 50% in the field in the endgame. But against all odds, the Talk N Text KaTropa prevented an upset by eliminating the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters on a 118-114 victory that booked the KaTropa a slot in the semifinals for a chance to dethrone the defending champions, the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings.

As everyone was expecting them to do, the Talk N Text KaTropa came out firing early in the first quarter as they made 6 of their first 7 attempts to hold an 8-point lead but the Elasto Painters’ offense finally started to click in and bridged the gap at 21-18 on Mark Borboran’s 3-point play. Right after TNT increased their edge back 8, Chris Tiu later brought it down to two on his 3-point shot with 1:19 to play in the first. Mark Borboran ended the opening chapter with a three-pointer to beat the buzzer to tie the score at 27 all. Borboran already 9 points to lead all scorers while TNT’s import, Glen Rice Jr. 8 points during the first 12 minutes. of play.

If TNT was firing on all cylinders in the first quarter, the beginning of the second was a little different as the defense of Rain or Shine forced the KaTropa to turn the ball over multiple times or take highly-contested shots that missed the basket. Later, J’Nathan Bullock drained a jumper to make 42-35 in favor of the Elasto Painters, their biggest lead in the first half. 

The Blur, Jayson Castro nailed a 3-pointer in the ensuing possessions to bring his team within 1, at 43-42 and then added a pair of free throws to give TNT a one-point lead with under 5 minutes before the break. The lead switched hands multiple times as both teams struggled to mount scoring runs as both teams every made basket with another basket and, every missed shot with another missed shot. As a result, both teams headed into the break with the score tied at 59 apiece after Jericho Cruz made a buzzer-beating jumper for the Elasto Painters.

Both teams were shooting relatively good percentages with TNT making 45% of their attempts in the first half while Rain or Shine converted 51% of their own. Glen Rice Jr. led the KaTropa with 18 points while Jayson Castro added 16 points which include 8 free throws and two from beyond the arc. Bullock on the other hand, scored 15 first-half points while Beau Belga added 12. 

What was the difference that worked for TNT? Free throw shooting. As a team, TNT attempted 25 free throws in the first half alone, making 20 of them. In contrast, Rain or Shine only made 7 of their 9 attempts from the free throw line.

It took almost two minutes into the 3rd quarter before either team scored, a spell that was by broken by Glen Rice Jr. a lay-up and J’Nathan Bullock on a pair of charities at the other end. After Bullock nailed a long one off a lucky bounce, Anthony Semerad answered a three-pointer of his own to increase TNT’s advantage to 5 which was later trimmed down to 1 anew off a Mark Borboran lay-up with 5:06 to go, forcing TNT Coach Nash Racela to call for a timeout.  The rest of the 3rd quarter became a free throw shooting contest as both teams struggled to make any notable run. The Elasto Painters had an 86-85 lead entering the final quarter

Chris Tiu and Gabe Norwood drained a three-pointer each to open the fourth quarter to give Rain or Shine, a  7-point lead, prompting TNT to call for another with barely 2 minutes into the quarter. A pair of threes from Ryan Reyes and Anthony Semerad enabled the KaTropa to grab the lead at 102-100 with under 6 minutes to work with.

From that point on, the match became a shootout as Jericho Cruz added another trey for Rain or Shine to tie the score at 105 apiece with less than 4 minutes to play. The Elasto Painter later regained the lead after a  Norwood trey but TNT went on a 5-0 scoring run that made it 112-108, in favor of the KaTropa approaching the final two-minute mark.

Then, Beau Belga and Jericho Cruz combined for Rain or Shine next 4 points to tie the score, again, at 112 all. Two free throws from Bullock gave Rain or Shine the edge, at 114-112 with 46 seconds to go. 3 seconds later, Castro drew J’Nathan Bullock’s 5th foul and drained the ensuing free throws. After the Elasto Painter failed to score on their next possession, Glen Rice Jr. tipped back Castro’s air-balled trey which gave KaTropa the lead, at 116-114 with 10 ticks to play. A bad pass by Bullock enabled TNT to dribble away the clock as Ryan Reyes made two more charities to end the game.

Glen Rice Jr. came out of his shooting slump to finish with 34 points, 16 rebounds and 9 assists. Jayson Castro, despite making 3 of his 11 field goal attempts, finished with 20 points, built on 12 free throws. He also dished away 12 assists in the game. Troy Rosario and Roger Pogoy added 18 and 16 respectively while Kelly Williams scored 10 points. Points off turnovers were one of the reasons why the KaTropa prevented Rain or Shine from running away especially in the 4th quarter. In addition to this, TNT held a 38-32 advantage in points in the paint.

Rain or Shine on the other hand, was led by Bullock’s 30 points. Beau Belga scored 18 to lead the bench players of the Elasto Painters who, for the second straight game, outscored the bench players of TNT, 54-20. Gabe Norwood finished with 14 while Jericho Cruz added 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Scores:

TNT – 118

Rice Jr. 34,  Castro 20, Rosario 18, Pogoy 16, Willams 10, Semerad 8, Reyes 5, Carey 4, Tautuaa 3, Golla 0, Nuyles 0, Hernandez 0, Lingganay 0, Seigle 0, Chua 0

Rain or Shine – 114

Bullock 30, Belga 18, Borboran 15, Norwood 14, Cruz 11, Tiu 10, Ahanmisi 7, Trollano 5, Almazan 4, Maiquez 0, Ponferada 0, Yap 0, Robles 0, Matias 0, King 0, Daquioag 0

Quarter scoring:

27-27, 59-59, 85-86, 118-114

3 Things TNT Needs To Do Against ROS

These things will bring the TNT KaTropa to the semifinals

Glen Rice Jr. only made 8 of his 28 attempts last Wednesday. (Photo by the PBA Media Bureau)

Many thought that the Talk N Text KaTropa would put an end to the season of the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters when they opened their quarterfinals match-up last Wednesday. Unfortunately, many were disappointed when the Elasto Painters were able to weather away from a furious 4th quarter comeback by TNT as they successfully pulled a 106-102 victory which is the reason they will need to play one more time tonight to decide who between them will face the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings in the semifinals.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We all know that the players of Coach Nash Racela are capable of beating any team regardless if they have the twice-to-beat-advantage or not. Fortunately for TNT, finishing in the Top 4 at the end of the elimination round gives them another chance to make things right and to be able to move on to the next level, there are things that they need to do to avoid another embarrassing loss and below are those things:

Bench must produce!

If we’re going to look back at last Wednesday’s game, one of the reasons why TNT ran out of gas especially during their failed 4th quarter comeback was the mere fact that there was no significant production that came out from the bench players of TNT who combined to finished with 9 points which a far cry to the 29 points of the bench of ROS. 

If TNT wishes to get rid of the Elasto Painters, they will need everyone on board and they cannot simply rely on the heroics of Jayson Castro especially during clutch situations. For one, Roger Pogoy must become the player who helped his team beat Ginebra in the final game of the elimination round. In their game last Wednesday,  Pogoy only had 7 points and 6 fouls. If anything, this conference has proven what Pogoy can do and he will need to bring his A+ game come tonight. And so is the rest of the bench players of TNT.

Glen Rice Jr. must score more

The defense of Coach Caloy Garcia and his wards had successfully limited Glen Rice Jr.’s offensive output to only 19 points while making only 8 of his 28 attempts including just 1 of 12 three-point attempts. Coming into tonight’s game, Nash Racela knows that for his team to have a chance against the Elasto Painters, he must tell his import to manage his attempts and only take the shots that have a higher chance of going into the basket because otherwise, a missed shot is a missed opportunity for the rest of the team. Last Wednesday’s game saw Rice Jr. waste 20 scoring opportunities for his team. He doesn’t only need to score more for  TNT to win the game. He needs to slow things down on offense.

Make it rain

As ugly as it sounds, TNT only made 9 of 35 shots from rainbow country, a horrible 25% shooting from that area. And that is not the kind of shooting percentage you can expect from a TNT team that is loaded with shooters. In contrast, Rain or Shine made it rain from deep the entire game and they continuously bombed away and finished the game, making 16  out of 42 from deep. 

If anything, TNT has been known, loved and even hated by opposing teams for their ability to make it rain with threes and if they can go back to that habit of making more threes like nothing else happened, TNT would be a very scary team to play against and Ginebra would better watch out. 

Video: TNT’s Rice Jr and Castro Exploded to Gain Crucial Win Against Ginebra

TNT Makes Life More Miserable for Gin Kings with Complications

Glen Rice Jr. regained his shooting touch to help lead TNT to an important win. (Photo by the PBA Media Bureau)

If there’s one game where both teams knew that they cannot afford to lose, it’s probably this game between crowd-darling Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings against the Talk N Text Katropa. 

Why? Let’s just say that if Ginebra will lose this game, their road towards a back-to-back Governors’ Cup titles will be much complicated because we all have to remember that the Meralco Bolts can still snatch that Number 1 seed from the Gin Kings, should the Bolts win tomorrow. 

As for the Katropa, a win against the Gin Kings will enable them to finish the elimination round with an 8-3 record and should the Bolts go on to win against the San Miguel Beerman tomorrow, Talk N Text will have a fighting chance via the PBA quotient system to enter the playoffs as the number 3 team.

As it turned out, Ginebra will have to wait for the result of the Meralco-San Miguel game tomorrow to know their fate after the Talk N Text Katropa dominated them 122-98 which pushed the Gin Kings’ record to 8-3 after 11 games

The first half was a see-saw battle with Ginebra leading after the first 12 minutes of action and then TNT just started stepping on the gas at every scoring opportunity as Jayson Castro buried 3 of his attempts from beyond the arc as he led TNT with 17 points and 4 assists at the break. TNT took an 8 point lead into halftime despite the struggle of their import, Glen Rice Jr., who had 16 points on a miserable 5 of 15 shooting. 

Ginebra on the other hand only had Justin Brownlee who had 14 points at halftime to lead the Gin Kings. While Ginebra forced their opponent to make only 35% of their shots from the rainbow country, they allowed TNT to dominate the 2-point area which saw Castro and company 61% of the shots inside during the first half as compared to Ginebra who only made 42% of their shot within the 2-point area.

When the third quarter started, TNT started building a double-digit lead which reached 14 with under 8 minutes to play in the quarter thanks to Rice Jr’s aggressiveness. In addition to this, local players of Coach Nash Racela made a significant impact throughout the game to counter the earlier struggle of their import. Ginebra fell behind by as much as 17 points after a trey from Rice Jr. with under 6 minutes to go in the quarter. In fact, Ginebra struggled to sustain an offensive run as TNT would simply answer every run they make with a scoring run of their own as the lead later ballooned to 20 after another 3-pointer from who else? Glen Rice Jr. who scored 18 points in that quarter alone. RR Pogoy later hit a 3-pointer of his own to put TNT up by 22 with 4 minutes to spare. Ginebra’s Head Coach Tim Cone could only watch as his team fell behind by 17 entering the fourth quarter.

TNT wanted to make sure that they kept Ginebra at bay as they started the 4th quarter with back-to-back treys from Jayson Castro which forced Tim Cone to call a timeout 2 minutes into the quarter. The Blur would later add 2 more treys and Pogoy would score on a fastbreak dunk as TNT  continued to pound in on the points.

What doomed Ginebra in this game? Tons of things. They weren’t able to contain the 3-point shooting of TNT. They allowed Castro and company to make the most of their opportunity from beyond the 3-point line, converting a total of 17 out of 40 attempts which is a far cry to Ginebra’s 6 of 23 attempts from beyond the arc Ginebra was also outscored in terms of the fastbreak points where they only converted 6 points compared to 19 fastbreak points by TNT.

Glen Rice Jr. recovered from his early slump to lead his team with 36 points including 6 of 13 attempts from rainbow country. Castro complimented their import’s performance with 28 points on his own to go along with his 7 assists.  Troy Rosario added 15 points, which includes a perfect 3 of 3 shooting from beyond the arc, and 10 rebounds while Kelly Williams finished with 10 points and 11 boards. Roger Pogoy finished the elimination round with 15 points to lead TNT’s players off the bench. 

On the other hand, only Justin Brownlee and Japeth Aguilar managed to score in double figures for the Gin Kings as Brownlee and Aguilar finished with 28 and 19 respectively. The rest of the Gin Kings struggled miserably starting with LA Tenorio who only made 1 of his 9 attempts for his 6 points.  Joe Devance was also struggling with his offense as he only converted 3 of his 8 attempts, good for 7 points for the night. The Gin Kings cannot simply play this way if they want to win back-to-back Governors’ Cup titles.

Scores:

TNT – 121
Rice Jr. 36, Castro 28, Rosario 15, Pogoy 15, Semerad 4, Chua 4, Golla 3, Carey 2, Tautuaa 2, Siegle 2, Nuyles 0, Hernandez 0, Reyes 0, Lingganay 0, Tamsi 0

Ginebra – 92
Brownlee 28, J. Aguilar 19, Thompson 9, Devance 7, Tenorio 6, Mercado 6, R. Aguilar 4, Caguioa 4, Slaughter 4, Ferrer 3, Cruz 2, Helterbrand 0, Jamito 0, Mariano 0, Taha 0

Quarter scores:

30-31, 57-49, 88-69, 121-92