THE series is now tied at 1-1 for a number of weird reasons.
For starters, Barangay Ginebra’s 71-70 win on Sunday, March 16, 2025, was never a master stroke. Rather, it was a virtual gift from TNT.
Go, ask the crowd of 12,925 fans that packed the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
TNT hardly appeared in the first quarter as Ginebra limited the Tropang Giga to just 15 points in that canto.
And how about this, TNT disappearing in the second frame as it could only score four points for an all-time franchise’s record low output in a quarter?
Add that first-quarter 15 points and TNT’s total of 19 was also a record for the least points in halftime production as Ginebra built a 32-19 lead going into the final half.
But look at this.
Despite an anemic showing almost three-fourths of the way, TNT managed to battle back, and even grabbed a 70-67 lead with 2:28 to go — thanks to the back-to-back triples from RR Pogoy and Calvin Oftana capped by two charities from Rondae “RHJ” Hollis-Jefferson.
And then came the surreal — Ginebra emerging the designated survivor in a Netflix-like script making TNT the designated loser in the end.
With 2:05 left in the game, Justin Brownlee laid up to cut TNT’s lead at 70-69.
After trading fierce defensive struggles for supremacy, Pogoy fouled Brownlee at the 46.9-second mark.
As cool as Zelensky was against Trump’s tirades, Brownlee buried both free throws for Ginebra’s 71-70 lead — a lead as brittle as a dried twig.
But astonishingly, it stood to the very end, thanks to Ginebra’s choking defense that thwarted TNT’s final two offensives.
First was forcing the Tropang Giga to commit a 24-second violation, before sealing it with another double-team that lured “RHJ” to heave an absolute miss as time expired.
Ginebra was defense-sharp almost game-long, starving RHJ to a 6-of-23 clip for just 23 points, a far cry from his 34 points in TNT’s 95-89 Game 1 victory on Friday, March 14.
Ginebra’s defense also limited the deadly RR Pogoy to just 11 points on 4-of-12 threes after hitting 5 triples for TNT last time out.
And with Brownlee (35 points) thoroughly outsmarting RHJ in Game 2, we have an interesting Game 3 coming up on Wednesday, March 19, at Philsports in Pasig City.
The race-to-four series is just starting to heat up.