TNT, Ginebra, grab opening wins in PBA bubble restart

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

Filipino hoops fans were all ecstatic after the PBA bubble restart kicked-off in Clark Pampanga with a doubleheader treat.

In the first game, Roger Pogoy carried the TNT Tropang Giga after setting a new career-high of 45 points on a 17-29 shooting clip to nip the Alaska Aces, 100-95.

Falling behind by as much as 17-points in the game, Pogoy’s scoring outburst came at the most opportune time after dropping 10 huge treys out of 16 attempts.

The Aces’ defense proved to be too much for the Tropang Giga early in the game as their defensive adjustments led to early turnovers for TNT.

However, Pogoy went on his own scoring avalanche that helped TNT claw back and eventually win the game to cap-off the momentum boosting victory.

Meanwhile, in the last game of the first day, the Ginebra San Miguel showed why they are one of the toughest teams to beat in the league after scoring a win against the tough NLEX Road Warriors, 102-92.

Despite an ailing LA Tenorio and Japhet Aguilar, the other veterans stepped-up to carry the load with Aljon Mariano scoring a career-high of 20 points.

Known to be more of a defense-oriented type of player, the former UST Growling Tiger showed his post-presence and fired elbow jumpers at will that torched the Road Warriors.

NLEX struggled after veteran big man JR Quinahan was tossed out of the playing court after registering his second technical foul of the game.

Meanwhile, superstar Kiefer Ravena had a rough shooting night after only scoring 6 points in the entire ball game while attempting just 6 shots.