Getting even, ahead
Romeo leads San Miguel past former team TNT for 1-0 edge; Ginebra scores
Terrence Romeo swiftly quashed the thought of getting back at his former team, but his coach and his performance indicated otherwise in San Miguel’s gritty victory over TNT, 80-78, at the start of their PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinal series on Saturday night at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
Romeo teamed up with Marcio Lassiter and June Mar Fajardo to help the reigning defending champions buck a shaky start, and gain the head start
crucial in a race-to-two series.
“Therewas none,” the hotshot guard told reporters in Filipino when asked if he came into the game with extra motivation, having been ditched by TNT before finding his way to San Miguel.
Barangay Ginebra won out in a defense-oriented opener of its separate best-of-three series with Magnolia to also draw first blood after an 86-75 win in the nightcap.
Twin towers Greg Slaughter and Japeth Aguilar completed double-doubles with a combined 27 points and 23 rebounds, and Art dela Cruz came off the bench to shoot 14 for the Gin Kings, who can wrap this series up in Game 2 also Monday.
“I treated this like every playoff game I’ve played in,” he said after shooting 15 points in 22 minutes coming off the bench.
Fajardo was also big, also finishing with 15 points despite the gung-ho double-teams he dealt with all game long.
The reigning five-time MVP also hit the go-ahead putback in the dying seconds. Lassiter also had 15 points, all but two coming in the first half that enabled the Beermen to tug at the KaTropa’s coattails.
Romeo missed playing against his former team in the elimination round due to a sprained left foot.
“I was excited to play them. But the goal wasn’t ‘Terrence versus TNT.’ It was ‘SMB versus TNT,’” added the spitfire guard, who shot 3-of-6 from rainbow territory and figured as the catalyst of the Beermen’s fightback in the middle quarters.
RR Pogoy missed a desperation three-pointer inside the final 2.2 seconds which could have turned things around for the KaTropa.
“Thank God Romeo is here,” SMBcoach Leo Austria said.