MANILA, Philippines – The TNT KaTropa had just enough left in the tank not to squander their twice-to-beat incentive after eking out a 118-114 win over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in a do-or-die clash to complete the semifinals cast of the 2017 PBA Governors’ Cup at the Big Dome Friday, September 29.

Neither team gave an inch until the final 30 seconds, 114-all, before Glen Rice Jr scored a putback off a Jayson Castro miss to give the KaTropa a 116-114 lead with 10.2 left in the game. 

Rain or Shine still had time to score an equalizer but J’Nathan Bullock’s errant pass to Beau Belga resulted in a turnover as TNT’s Ryan Reyes, who was fouled by Bullock afterwards, buried the insurance free throws.

“Hard fought victory. We knew going into this series that we will be having a hard time playing against them,” said TNT coach Nash Racela of the game which was marked by 16 deadlocks and 16 lead changes. 

“It just so happened that today, we came out the better team. The breaks of the game favored us in the end.”

It was a shootout early in the fourth as the Elasto Painters took a 97-91 lead off back-to-back threes from Chris Tiu and Gabe Norwood but TNT answered with three straight bombs from beyond-the-arc courtesy of Rice Jr, Reyes and Castro to lead 102-110.

Rice Jr almost reached a triple-double with 34 points, 16 rebounds 9 assists, two steals and two blocks while Castro scored 20 and dished out 12 assists on top of 6 boards.

Troy Rosario and Roger Pogoy made their presence felt after scoring 18 and 16 points, respectively, while Kelly Williams provided solid contributions of 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Bullock paced the Elasto Painters with 30 points while Belga added 18 points and 10 boards.

The KaTropa will face the Ginebra San Miguel in the semifinals beginning on Monday, October 2, at the same venue. – Rappler.com