GUNNER Roger Pogoy played like a second import and TNT justified its stunning decision to change reinforcement from prolific Jalen Hudson to Rondae Hollis-Jefferson with a runaway drubbing of Blackwater yesterday.
Boosted by a fast start and a sustained charge, the Tropang Giga dumped the Bossing 138- 116 for their fourth straight win in the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
Pogoy dazzled with 40 points spiked by seven three-pointers, to go with nine rebounds for TNT, while Hollis-Jefferson backed him up with 37 markers, 13 boards, and seven assists.
Mikey Williams also had 14 points, six caroms, and six dimes, while Glen Khobuntin and Calvin Oftana combined for 24 as the charges of coach Jojo Lastimosa did an encore to a 131-109 shellacking of Terrafirma five days ago and rose to 6-1.
Blackwater absorbed its fifth straight loss, including a 117-122 defeat to Rain or Shine last Sunday and slipped to 1-6 in the season-ending tourney.
Lastimosa is convinced he got a gem of an import in the 6-fot-6 Hollis-Jefferson, a first round pick (23rd overall) by the Brooklyn Nets in 2015 and also had brief stints with the Toronto Raptors and Portland Trailblazers.
“You can see that Roger has more open shots that I’ve seen him in a long time,” Lastimosa said. “Ang daming libre, hindi lang si Roger because Rondae, we know that’s one of his skills. All they’ve got to do is knock it down. How Rondae played today, iyon iyong ine-expect naming– a little bit of everything, rebounding, passing, defense, running down the floor, communicating on defense.”
“I don’t really expect him to score that much because he’s not really a volume shooter like Jalen, a talented scorer. Rondae is built different and we’re moving the ball around. They’re getting better looks,” he added.
The Tropang Giga took a 68-50 edge at the half and hardly met resistance from a fading Blackwater side.
TNT stretched the difference to as much as 105-74 on Khobuntin’s two free throws at the 3:09 mark of the third canto before it went into the payoff period with a commanding 111-87 spread.
Import Troy Williams paced the Bossing with 22 points, eight rebounds and six feeds, while JVee Casio added 21 and two.
RK Ilagan, Tyrus Hill, Rashawn McCarthy, and Yousef Taha also contributed 16, 15, 11, and 10 markers, respectively for Blackwater.
