TNT KaTropa. PBA IMAGES
Determined to regain its championship status, TNT had been an unstoppable force in the 2016 PBA Governors’ Cup.
Like a well-oiled machine, the KaTropa were an offensive juggernaut with Jayson Castro working as their motor as they orchestrated one blowout after another on their way to an 11-1 record entering the semifinals.
The No. 1 team in the league was rolling like a house on fire until it ran into Meralco, inferior in talent but approached every game with workmanlike thoroughness.
“We lost the game, the series. We just go back to the drawing board and look forward to the next conference,” TNT head coach Jong Uichico told reporters Monday night.
“We did very well in the elimination round, but at the end of the day, it’s how you finish. But, of course, we always want to have a good start.”
Uichico has always been a man of few words but after the KaTropa crashed out of the race with a stunning 94-88 loss in Game 4 despite taking the semifinals opener, there’s really nothing left to say.
“Meralco played really well. We couldn’t do the same stuff that we did during the eliminations, but they really prepared well for us.”
The series started the way it was expected to be with TNT whipping Meralco by 18. But the Bolts defied the odds and pulled off three straight wins, including a frenetic Game 3 the kind of match that suits the KaTropa’s style of play.
Making Meralco’s upset more impressive was it had to play the last two games of the series without one of its leaders in Jared Dillinger.
But not even the absence of a key player from the other team could give TNT the break it needed to pull through.
“It happens. We just have to learn to grind things out when things aren’t going well, just keep grinding and grinding, and that’s something that we have to work on.”