By Jonas Terrado
Game Saturday
(Ynares Center, Antipolo City)
6:30 p.m. – TNT KaTropa vs Meralco
(TNT leads series 2-1)
For the Meralco Bolts, Game 3 of the PBA Governors’ Cup semifinals was not lost because of a major endgame boo-boo but with the way they squandered a big lead and failing to control the boards when needed.
Meralco’s Allen Durham soars to dunk against TNT’s KJ McDaniels during Game 3 of their PBA Governors’ Cup semifinal series. (PBA Images)
“We certainly had a chance to win the game,” said Black, whose Bolts will try to force a deciding fifth game in Saturday’s resumption of their series at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City.
“We gave them some offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter that hurt us. And made a turnover in the most crucial time of the game,” Black added.
Meralco was hoping to send the game into overtime with a three-pointer in the final seconds. Two-time Best Import Allen Durham had the ball when he spotted a teammate who was wide open in the right elbow.
Durham made the pass only to realize that it was Cliff Hodge, who was not among the five on the floor for Meralco. Hodge was on sidelines making signals for his teammates on the floor.
The Meralco bench recoiled in shock, and Hodge immediately sat back on the bench in disgust at himself. Jayson Castro took advantage of the error in judgment by the Bolts and split two foul shots to seal a 101-97 win.
“Hopefully he didn’t pass it to Cliff because Cliff was along the sidelines,” Black lamented. “But yeah, that was pretty costly, but it happens. It’s bad that it happened to us in the most crucial part of the game.”
Hodge later took the blame for that mistake, while Durham opted to point out other aspects as to why the result occurred.
“It didn’t come down to just one play,” he said. “Even though we could’ve tied it or something if we made a shot, we gotta be better before it gets down to a play like that.”
Before the terrible ending to the closest game of the semifinal series, Durham had brought the Bolts back from wasting an 11-point third quarter and trailing 11 early in the fourth by mauling TNT defenders on the post.
But Durham encountered some trouble on the boards, with TNT counterpart KJ McDaniels scoring off follow-up dunks. McDaniels later scored a key putback over the shoulders of Durham to make it 100-97 with less than a minute remaining.
McDaniels didn’t have a scoring output like he had in Game 2 when he made 51 in a losing effort, but the locals made their presence felt this time.
Troy Rosario made 25 points, Roger Pogoy, who felt like bad karma for pinching Baser Amer several times led to a scoreless showing in Game 2, had 15 while Castro put up 17.
If that trend continues, TNT has a good chance of appearing in the finals for the second straight conference.
Source: Manila Bulletin
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