The Converge FiberXers thwarted the TNT Tropang Giga’s late run to score a 107-103 stunner to close their PBA Philippine Cup campaign on Wednesday night at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.
Leading by as much as 16 points at 98-82 with six minutes left in the game, the FiberXers were surprised by a huge Tropang Giga uprising that cut their lead to 102-99 with over two minutes left.
After misses from the Tropang Giga side, the FiberXers managed to widen the lead to 104-99 on a basket by Deschon Winston before securing the victory with three free throws.
Aljun Melecio led the way for the FiberXers with 17 points, including four three-point conversions, while Bryan Santos and Justin Arana contributed 15 markers apiece as they ended the season with a 2-9 win-loss slate.
King Caralipio and Winston finished with 14 and 13 points, respectively, and Patrick Maagdenberg contributed a career-high of 12 points, with eight coming in the fourth quarter, for Converge.
FiberXers head coach Aldin Ayo praised his second unit players for stepping up after most of his players from the first unit were saddled with foul trouble almost the entire game.
“To sum up the game, our second group won it for us,” Ayo said in a post-game interview. “I have been challenging our second group to play harder than our first group.”
“Lots of our second unit players reached double digits in scoring, but more than the score, their defense against the smaller players of Talk N Text was also efficient,” he added.
Calvin Oftana led the way with a double-double of 33 points and 12 rebounds; Roger Pogoy added 29 markers; Kim Aurin and Glenn Khobuntin had 13 and 11, respectively, as the Tropang Giga dropped to 5-5.
The post Converge stuns TNT to finish PBA season with win first appeared on Fastbreak.
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