WITH fire in his eyes, reigning best import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson of defending champion TNT caught the ball from the backcourt and ferociously attacked the napping defense of Rain or Shine counterpart Aaron Fuller last night before rising for a lefty slam with 37.3 seconds remaining.
Propped up by Hollis-Jefferson’s clutch showing, the Tropang Giga outlasted the Elasto Painters 81-79 in Game 4 of their best-of-7 semifinals duel in the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Hollis-Jefferson’s slam came on the heels of a Leonard Santillan and-one off a JP Erram foul that knotted the match one last time at 79-all with 45.7 to go.
That defensive lapse seemed to have lit the fire on Hollis-Jefferson, whose thundering throwdown left Fuller flabbergasted under the basket.
TNT coach Chot Reyes praised his charges for showing endgame poise against a gritty Rain or Shine side to atone for a painful 109-110 loss in the third tiff last Sunday and wrest a 3-1 series lead.
“We never felt that momentum was going our way the whole game. It was a grind, and we just kept reminding our players to stick with it. We knew it was going to be a grind,” Reyes said. “In fact, at the dugout at halftime we told them to prepare for 24 minutes of a battle of attrition. This is not gonna be easy by any stretch.
“We told them this was going to go down the wire and just be prepared and that’s exactly what happened. In the end it was just a matter of Rey (Nambatac) hitting a three-pointer, and Rondae had that slam dunk and then we made stops in a very closely fought ballgame, it just came down to those,” he added.
Hollis-Jefferson notched a game-high 23 points, to go with 16 rebounds, five assists, five steals, and five blocks for the Tropang Giga while Nambatac chipped in 15 markers, 11 boards, and four dimes.
Calvin Oftana also barely missed a double-double with 15 and nine for TNT.
The Tropang Giga can close out the race-to-4 clash in Game 5 for tomorrow at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
TNT battled the Painters to a 39-all standoff at the halfway mark before grabbing a 63-59 lead entering the final 12 minutes.
A Nambatac triple gave the Tropang Giga a 79-76 buffer in the final 1:16 before Santillan’s three-point play off an Andrei Caracut missed trey pegged another deadlock.
Fuller led the charge for Rain or Shine with 22 points and 18 caroms while Santillan contributed 11.
Further proof of Hollis-Jefferson refusing to lose this one? He blocked a Jhonard Clarito shot in the Painters’ next offensive thrust and after several misses from Caracut and Gian Mamuyac, Hollis-Jefferson stole the possession from Clarito with only 1.5 seconds to spare.
