ILONGGO Ferdinand “Bong” Ravena had a triumphant coaching debut in his hometown as TNT KaTropa cruised to a 110-104 victory over Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in the 2018 PBA Governors’ Cup on Saturday night at the Passi City Arena in the component city of Passi in Iloilo province.
Marqus Blakely debuted as TNT import with near triple-double 26 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists, while Jeth Troy Rosario and Terrence Romeo combined for 11 triples to finish with 24 and 22 points, respectively.
It was the second consecutive win for the KaTropa (3-4) after a whirlwind start this conference that saw the expulsion of two ineffective imports and the firing of Nash Racela as head coach.
For Ravena – no matter how fitting his new designation with the KaTropa is – he turned out to be a mere proxy to New Zealander-Australian Mark Dickel, who was the one actively calling the shots the entire game.
The Painters were aggressive early in the game, even managing to lead by as much as 10 points behind the exploits of J’Nathan Bullock and James Yap, but the KaTropa slowly itched their way back to trim the deficit 35-39 at the half.
As they turned to outside shooting from Romeo, Rosario and Roger Pogoy, and the inside presence of Blakely in the third canto, TNT surged to their largest lead 93-78 on a drive by Ryan Garcia.
Conversions from Gabe Norwood and Yap allowed Rain or Shine to slowly claw their way back and trim the deficit 93-100 but the KaTropa pulled away for good with timely hits from Celedonio Trollano and Romeo.
Bullock led the Painters (0-1) with 23 points, five rebounds and five assists. Yap added 21 markers and Norwood also managed a double-digit contribution of 12 points./PN
