ANTHONY Semerad finally had his breakout game in a TnT Katropa uniform and it couldn’t have come at a better time than in Game Two of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinals against Barangay Ginebra.
Semerad drained four three-pointers in the payoff period, including the shot that put the Texters in front for good and led to a nail-biting 107-103 win Tuesday night that put them within arm’s reach of reaching the finals of the mid-season tournament.
TnT was down staring at a 102-103 deficit when the Fil-Australian forward, acquired by the team in a recent four-team trade, hit the biggest shot of the night in the final 53 seconds of the thrilling game at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Hulking import Joshua Smith then preserved the win when he blocked Justine Brownlee’s shot in Ginebra possession, before scoring on a putback following a missed triple by Jayson Castro at the other end.
The victory put TnT up 2-0 in the best-of-five series as it pushed the league’s most popular ballclub – and top seeded team – on the brink of elimination.
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Game Three is set Thursday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Despite the commanding lead, coach Nash Racela remains wary of the Kings capability to stage a possible comeback.
“Knowing the character of this team, they never give up. So if there’s one team that can really comeback, it’s them,” he said during the customary post-game interview.
“That’s why we need to guard against complacency and we really need to double our focus.”
Smith, who had a career-high of 35 points in the Game One win, was held to just 16 points this time by the Kings and only had nine field goals overall. He did finish with 16 rebounds, though.
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But Ginebra forgot about Semerad, the unheralded third-year wingman who punished the Kings with his torrid outside shooting as he finished with 14 points, including four of five from three-point range, in his best outing so far since being acquired by the franchise from Globalport.
Rookie Roger Pogoy also had 14 points, while Jayson Castro and Kelly Williams 12 each for the Texters, who last played in the finals when they won the Commissioner’s Cup title in 2015.
Brownlee led Ginebra with 22 points and 12 rebounds but struggled on the floor by shooting 10 of 24.
LA Tenorio was the top local scorer for the Kings with 22 markers. He was 4 of 6 from downtown, the last of which put Ginebra on top for the last time, 102-103, before Semerad finally took over for TnT. (JR)
