The TNT KaTropa continued to roll in the Oppo PBA Commissioner’s Cup after cruising to a 21-point blowout of the GlobalPort Batang Pier, 109-88, on Friday at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.
TNT import Donte Greene led the charge with 33 points, including four three-pointers, alongside 10 rebounds. Backing him up was star point guard Jayson Castro, who had a strong start before finishing with 15 points on 66-percent shooting, four assists and two blocks.
Veterans Ranidel De Ocampo and Larry Fonacier both had good showings from off the bench, contributing 14 and 12 points, respectively, while rookie RR Pogoy also reached double figures with 10 markers.
With so many players chipping in, the KaTropa rolled to a fifth straight win in the conference, improving to 5-1. The Batang Pier, meanwhile, dropped to 1-5.
Greene and Castro set the tone for TNT from the very beginning as the pair combined to score 14 points in a jackrabbit 20-9 start.
The two continued to shine in the second quarter. Greene carried the KaTropa offense early as he scored the first eight of his team’s points of the period while Castro finished it off strong, tallying the last seven points as TNT went on a 9-0 run to close the first half with a 56-49 lead.
The TNT import already had 18 points while the two-time FIBA Asia Best Point Guard scored all 15 of his points in the first half.
GlobalPort remained firmly in the game, though, thanks to big performances from JR Quinahan (15 points, 3-for-4 on three-pointers), import Malcolm White (14 points and seven rebounds) and Terrence Romeo (11 points).
But the rest of the KaTropa showed up in the second half to turn the game into a rout.
Fonacier nailed back-to-back threes while De Ocampo finished on a dunk in an 8-0 run that buoyed the team early in the third period, 64-51.
De Ocampo would catch fire from beyond the arc himself in the fourth quarter, drilling two triples that pushed the lead up to 17 points before Greene again took over, at one point scoring nine unanswered points as the TNT lead grew to 22 points, 103-81.
The scores:
TNT (109) – Greene 33, Castro 15, De Ocampo 13, Fonacier 12, Pogoy 10, Tautuaa 7, Williams 6, Rosario 5, Reyes 3, Rosales 2, Ganuelas-Rosser 2, Henandez 0, Tamsi 0.
GlobalPort (88) – White 21, Romeo 20, Quinahan 19, Pringle 15, Pessumal 5, Cortez 4, Forrester 3, Mamaril 1, Ababou 0, Paredes 0, Aban 0, Pennisi 0.
Quarterscores: 27-22, 56-49, 77-65, 109-88.
