WHEN you rout the defending champions by 20 points and qualify to the playoffs with a twice-to-beat advantage one week ahead of anybody else, then you’re bound to be considered among the favorites to win the championship.
That’s just what the TNT Ka Tropa are. TNT trounced San Miguel Beer, 105-85, in Batangas City last week to gain an outright Top Four finish in the 2016 Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup.
TNT Ka Tropa (8 wins, 1 loss) leads the standings. Trailing them are Barangay Ginebra (7-2), San Miguel (6-3), the Mahindra Enforcer (6-4) and the Phoenix Petroleum Fuel Masters (5-4).
The other teams include the NLEX Road Warriors (5-5), the Meralco Bolts (5-5), the Alaska Aces (4-5), the Rain Or Shine Elasto Painters (4-5), the GlobalPort Batang Pier (3-7), the Star Hotshots (2-8) and the Blackwater Elite (1-8).
Ginebra, which beat Mahindra, joined TNT in the Top Four a week later.
That’s right. After failing to advance to the semifinals of the 2016 PBA Philippine Cup and not doing any better in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup TNT Ka Tropa now look like the favorite to win the 2016 PBA Governors Cup.
Undersized compared to the giant laden San Miguel an Barangay Ginebra rosters TNT relied on speed and brute strength to overwhelm the Beermen at the Batangas City Coliseum last week.
The first half was a tossup as TNT Ka Tropa barely held on to the 46-45 halftime lead.
But the Texters ripped the game apart in the final 24 minutes. Jayson Castro was again at the forefront of the TNT assault. He submitted another double-double performance as he scored 16 points and issued 13 assists.
Ranidel De Ocampo had 18 markers to go with five boards. Asian import Mike Madanly and Larry Fonacier sniped from the outside for a combined for 24 points, including three three-pointers each.
Import Mike Ammons didn’t supply the points but he limited the productivity of June Mar Fajardo who struggled from the field.
San Miguel produced its worst scoring game this conference and endured its worst defeat in a long, long while. It was the third most lopsided loss by San Miguel Beer in the past six conferences under coach Leo Austria.
San Miguel import Mike Singletary could only score 18 points and collar seven rebounds in an underwhelming performance. Asian import Mahmoud Abdeen played his first game and chipped in nine points on three-of-six three-point shooting.
Fonacier scored when needed most. He went three-of-six from beyond the arc. He drained back-to-back triples to cap a blistering run by TNT that opened an 80-64 lead for TNT at the end of the third period.
Brought in to score points from the outside TNT’s Asian import Madanly fired a trey. Moala Tautuaa reminded everyone why he was the No. 1 rookie pick this season by scoring on a rim-rattling jam for the Texters.
The victory over the defending champion Beermen validates TNT’s status as the team to beat this conference. The team is just filled with athletic, hard-working studs who are dominant at both ends of the court.
De Ocampo, Castro, Madanly and Troy Rosario chipped in double digit scores. Ammons supplied the hustle but not too many points.
TNT had to go through a wringer earlier this PBA season before doing well this conference.
In the Philippine Cup they couldn’t even make it to the semifinals.TNT Tropang Texters scraped past the NLEX Road Warriors, 90-88, in the first phase of the elimination but were trounced by Rain Or Shine 104-89 in the second phase to miss the semifinals.
They couldn’t do any better in the Commissioner’s Cup they tripped the Alaska Aces, 106-99, in Game One of their quarterfinal matchup. But they lost the next two games, 81-85, and 99-81.
They could not overcome the stalwart defense of the Aces, who eventually went on to the Finals, to yield their quarterfinal playoff.
Apparently, their Draft Day coup of getting the top two draft picks – Moala Tautuaa and Troy Rosario – from under the noses of new teams Blackwater Elite and Mahindra Enforcer has finally paid dividends.
The Tropang Texters are still led by old reliables Cason and De Ocampo as well as defensive stalwarts Ryan Reyes and Kelly Williams. But the addition of Tautuaa and Rosario gives them a deep, deep bench of young hard-working athletic studs.
Then there are imports Ammons and Madanly. Neither are franchise players but they contribute enough to help propel TNT Ka Tropa to the top of the standings.
Talk N Text still looks like an undersized team compared to giants San Miguel Beer and Barangay Ginebra but they’ve made up for their lack in size with their physical, bruising defensive style as well as their run-and-gun offense led by the tireless Castro who has left every single team choking in the dust of TNT’s fastbreak offense.