TNT dethrones Magnolia Northport rips nlex, forces do-or-die

MANILA,Philippines — Jayson Castro presided over a furious endgame as No. 3 TNT rallied to a thrilling 98-97 victory over No. 6 Magnolia to clinch a semifinal seat while forcing the Hotshots to abdicate the throne in the PBA Governors’ Cup last night at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Playing his second game back from injury, Castro rifled in six of his team-high 30 markers to spark a 17-3 windup that completed TNT’s fightback from as many as 18 points down in the third and 13 with 4:22 left.

“We were trailing all the way and we didn’t actually expect to come back but it’s God’s plan. The players just kept playing hard and we’re able to come back and pull it off,” said TNT coach Bong Ravena after sealing a Last-4 duel with No. 2 Meralco, which had advanced via a 94-84 demolition of No. 7 Alaska.

Taking the cue from Castro, who made it a 91-96 contest, KJ McDaniels hit a bucket and Troy Rosario drained a booming trey as TNT finally caught up with Magnolia at 96-all.

Romeo Travis, who had a monster game of 32-26, restored a one-point spread for Magnolia with a split before Ray Parks delivered the go-ahead freebies and McDaniels swatted away Romeo’s stab to ice it.

Earlier, No. 8 NorthPort put up a dominating performance and routed No. 1 NLEX in a heated quarterfinal duel, 115-90, to force a rubbermatch on Wednesday.

Michael Qualls, Christian Standhardinger and Sean Anthony – the trio who gave NLEX the biggest headache in their 102-94 reversal back in the elims – once more spearheaded an aggressive assault as the Batang Pier repeated over the Road Warriors and stayed in the hunt.

Slam-dunking Qualls was a wrecking ball, scattering 29 points, 16 rebounds, five assists and two blocks, and more importantly kept himself in the game in the face of a melee that broke out at the 4:54 mark of the fourth.

Qualls was elbowed in the back by NLEX’ Poy Erram after landing on Paul Varilla, who brought down Standhardinger and charged at the NorthPort import. Erram and Varilla were each slapped with flagrant foul penalty two, leading to their banishment from the match and a likely sanction from the PBA Commissioner’s Office.

Christian Standhardinger banged in 24-13 and Anthony chipped in 12 with four boards.