TNT turns back ROS for 2nd win

ANTIPOLO, Philippines — Gutsy TNT snatched victory from the jaws of defeat against fading Rain or Shine, 105-100, to join the lead pack in the PBA Governors’ Cup last night at the Ynares Sports Center.

Despite falling to an 18-point hole amid the Elasto Painters’ scorching start, the unwavering Tropang Giga turned things around on a fiery second-half bombardment en route to win No. 2.

The troops of debuting coach Jojo Lastimosa, who opened their campaign with a 123-119 win over Phoenix last Wednesday, drew level with idle Converge and Meralco atop the table.

Mikey Williams caught fire and dropped 16 of his 24 in the last 24 minutes, including the dagger trey in the last 26.3 seconds, to help TNT to this comeback win.

Import Jalen Hudson also shot 24 as RR Pogoy rifled in 22.

“We were down by 13 at halftime and we just said maybe we can cut it down slowly. And the guys didn’t panic; they knew exactly what to do (in the second half),” said Lastimosa who also got the better of his coaching battle with Rain or Shine’s Yeng Guiao, his former boss during their old days at NLEX.

Earlier, Blackwater snapped its latest losing streak before it reached alarming proportions again.

Unsuccessful in their last seven games dating back to the previous conference, the Bossing worked their guts out to score a 108-105 victory over Phoenix Super LPG.

Shawn Glover fired 31 points, including 10 in fourth quarter, and hauled down 13 rebounds while Baser Amer (17 markers), Ato Ular (14-11) and Yousef Taha  (10-13) provided local support as Blackwater wheeled back on track.

The Bossing improved to 1-1 in the season-ending conference and in the bigger scheme of things, regained confidence in their winning ability after slumping for 105 days. Their last W prior to this was a 93-86 disposal of Terrafirma last Oct. 14 back in the Commissioner’s Cup.

“Maganda ito kasi we treated it as a championship game. It’s hard to be down 0-2 and then sunod-sunod na yung mga games so mahirap nang makabawi,” said coach Ariel Vanguardia.

“And then my team dinner pa kami for Chinese New Year. Hindi masarap kumain ng pansit kapag talo. So at least panalo,” he added with a smile.

The Bossing, who own the dubious record of 29 consecutive losses that lasted from October 2020 to March 2022, had a flat start in their Governors’ Cup, bowing to

NLEX, 124-102, last Wednesday.

“I challenged the guys to be tougher today, Shawn included. I told him ‘you only had five rebounds the other game, you should have at least 15 every game.’ He had 13 today,” said Vanguardia.

“Also we have some guys like JVee (Casio) on minutes restriction (coming back from injury) and we have new guys like RK (Ilagan), Mike D (Digregorio) and Ty (Hill) who are still adjust-ing to what we’re doing, But you see their energy and maganda ito,” he added.

Blackwater led by as many as 12 and even held an eight-point cushion early in the fourth before Du’Vaughn Maxwell and Tyler Tio sparked a major Phoenix rally.

Good thing for the Bossing, Glover, Rashawn McCarthy and Casio stepped forward to bail it out of the mess.

Maxwell finished with 37 and 17 for Phoenix, which fell to 0-2.

Meanwhile, Meralco (2-0) guns for the solo lead today against Terrafirma (0-1) in the 4:30 p.m. opener of a Saturday double-header also at Ynares.

The KJ McDaniels-led Bolts racked up victories over Rain or Shine (105-87) and NorthPort (107-102) to get their bid for redemption from early elimination last conference off to a good start. The Dyip are out to bounce back from their 130-115 opening loss to Converge.

NLEX (1-0) eyes  back-to-back at 6:45 p.m. versus a Batang Pier (0-2) side yet to crack the win column.