Roger Pogoy torched the Alaska Aces from distance all game long until Jayson Castro provided the end-game heroics to power TNT Tropang Giga past the Alaska Aces, 100-95, to kick off the resumption of the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup Sunday, October 11 at the Angeles University Foundation gym.
TNT trailed 89-92 when Pogoy drilled another three-pointer to tie the count, 92-all. TNT’s Ryan Reyes added two free throws to push his team ahead, 94-92. Vic Manuel split his charities to cut the gap to a point, 94-93, with 1:27 left to play.
Castro then took over. He converted four free throws and a layup against a lone field goal by Abu Tratter to power TNT to victory.
Pogoy finished with 45 points, with 10 three-pointers, while Castro added 28 markers of his own.
The Aces exploited TNT’s numerous turnovers in the first period to jump out to a fat 17-point initial advantage before settling for a 30-15 advantage after the first quarter.
The Aces led early but the Tropang Giga came storming back thanks to four three-pointers by Pogoy in the second quarter alone.
TNT ran into a maze of errors in the first quarter to end up with nine turnovers at halftime. The Aces caught up with their own turnovers and even passed the TNT total to wind up with 14 turnovers in the first half alone.
The Aces lost their big lead with the score tied at 48-all after two quarters.
The two teams continued to battle on even terms in the third with Alaska going on to post a one-point, 72-71, lead after three quarters.
Before that TNT big man Poy Erram went out of the game after he was whistled for a technical foul following a flagrant foul he committed on Alaska counterpart Barkley Ebona.