TNT takes pivotal 3-1 lead

MANILA, Philippines —  Titleholder TNT made sure to capitalize on its next opportunity to get on the hill against young but tough Rain or Shine.

After Sunday’s bungled job at Win No. 3, the Tropang Giga worked like a Trojan to put together an 81-79 Game 4 squeaker to close in on a seat to the PBA Governors’ Cup finals last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

At the forefront of this hard labor was Rondae Hollis-Jefferson who turned in a monster statline of 23 points, 19 rebounds, five assists, five steals and five blocks as TNT posted the quick bounceback to their 109-110 heartbreaker in Game 3 en route to a commanding 3-1 lead.

This puts Chot Reyes’ troops in a position to clinch a return ticket to the best-of-seven championship with a follow-up W in the fifth match tomorrow.

“We knew this was going to be a battle of attrition so we told the players to be prepared. In the end, it came down to us making a couple of shots and a couple of stops,” said Reyes.

The big shots came from Rey Nambatac, who hit a booming triple that gave TNT a 79-76 cushion, and Hollis-Jefferson, who delivered the go-ahead dunk right after Santi Santillan knotted the count with an And1 play.

“I knew we really needed a basket. And coaches are always telling me to get off two feet, to gather and go up strong. It’s just having that mindset,” he said of the game-winning slam.

RHJ completed his heroics by grabbing the defensive board over ROS’ Jhonard Clarito after a missed layup by Gian Mamuyac for a chance to seal the deal from the foul line with 1.1 second to go. He missed both free throws, though, but the Elasto Painters couldn’t muster a decent shot as time expired.

“That was just will. We know how important it was to get that rebound,” said Hollis-Jefferson.

Nambatac fired 15 with 11 rebounds while Calvin Oftana shot 15 and Jayson Castro came off injury with nine and Poy Erram added eight to complement TNT’s do-it-all import in the low-scoring game.

“It’s a total team effort,” said Hollis-Jefferson. “You got to give credit to (everyone) top to bottom. Everybody likes to hit shots but sometimes we’re not hitting shots so it kind of makes it a little tougher on defense and you kind of get down on yourself. So you got to credit the team for staying locked in.”

Aaron Fuller punched in 22-18 for ROS, which came a basket away from forcing TNT to a 2-2 tie. Instead, the Elasto Painters will now face a do-or-die situation two nights from now at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.