Romeo: It’s not Terrence vs TNT

MANILA, Philippines – For the first time this PBA season, San Miguel’s Terrence Romeo suited up and played against his former team, the TNT KaTropa.

And it turned out to be a good day for the ever controversial guard, who finished with a team-high 15 points off the bench. 

More importantly, the Beermen escaped with an 80-78 win for a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three Philippine Cup quarterfinals series.

For Romeo, the win was all that mattered. 

“No, no, [walang extra motivation]. Pareho lang ng lahat nang nilaruan ko na playoffs,” he said after the nail-biting comeback. “Same lang, kailangan naming manalo para mag-move forward sa next round.”

(There was no extra motivation. It’s the same with all the playoff games I played. We just needed to win to move forward in the next round.) 

“Excited na makalaro ulit sila pero yun nga, ang goal di naman Terrence versus TNT,” he continued. “[It’s] San Miguel versus TNT so ang goal is manalo kami and thank God binigay niya sa amin yung panalo.”

(I was excited to play against them, but the goal isn’t Terrence versus TNT. It’s San Miguel versus TNT and the goal is to win. Thank God he gave us the win.) 

Romeo was unable to play against his former team last January 27 due to a left ankle sprain and was forced to watch San Miguel absorb a 93-104 loss. 

Now that he’s fully healthy, however, it’s back to business for the standout FEU alumnus.

“Sabi lang ni coach laruin yung game namin tapos execute lang namin yung game plan namin,” he said. “Pag ine-execute namin yung plays namin, marami kaming nakukuha eh. Nakita lang namin yung advantage namin siguro sa pick-and-roll and minaximize namin.” 

(Coach just said to play our game and execute our game plan. When we execute our plays, we get a lot of stuff. We just saw our advantages and the pick-and-roll and maximized those.) 

Romeo did raise some eyebrows after he mentioned TNT’s Jericho Cruz and former KaTropa RR Garcia in the post-game, on-court interview, but he also brushed off any issues with it.

Garcia was released by TNT mid-conference while Cruz was recently relegated to the injury list amid trade rumors. 

“Ah hindi kasi mga best friend ko sila eh,” he said. “Normal lang na binati ko sila. Kaibigan ko kasi si Jericho at si RR. Parang normal lang na pagbati sa kaibigan.” 

(They’re my best friends. It’s normal that I greeted them.) – Rappler.com