Don Trollano weaved past Glenn Khobuntin and scored the winning basket with a split second left, sending the NLEX Road Warriors past the defending champion TNT Tropang Giga, 90-89, in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ynares Center in Antipolo on Thursday.
Trollano, who only had 11 points, found his opening after he turned to Khobuntin’s right flank and hit a jumper with 3/10ths of a second left.
This handed the Road Warriors the win following a 92-100 setback to the San Miguel Beermen on Friday last week.
Calvin Oftana knocked in a game-high 20 points for the Road Warriors, who moved to a share of third with NorthPort Batang Pier with the same 2-1 win-loss card.
The play called for the 6’3” Trollano to make the pass to Kevin Alas, who would then find Oftana for the final attempt.
But the play never happened after Trollano got stuck with Khobuntin’s harassment in the shaded lane.
Road Warriors’ coach Yeng Guiao said they had difficulty confronting the Tropang Giga with crunch time players Jayson Castro and RR Pogoy disrupting their plays in the final minute of action.
“What we did in practice, we just did differently. It worked for us. Hindi maalis sa kultura ng TNT na pagkakaroon ng mga crunch time players like RR and Jayson. We just focused on playing defense,” said Guiao.
Pogoy unloaded 28 points for the Tropang Giga, who fell behind at 2-2.
Kevin Alas shot 16 points for NLEX, with his three charities in the last 1:33 pushing the Road Warriors in front, 88-87.