A game after dropping 48 points, Bol Bol again was on fire on Saturday, dialing a 50-piece as he carried a struggling TNT Tropang 5G past an inspired Titan Ultra Giant Risers at the Ynares Center in Montalban.
It was simply a Herculean effort from the 7-foot-3 big man, and it isn’t lost on Chot Reyes, who admitted afterward that the rest of the Tropa had no choice but to lean on Bol because they were struggling all game long.
“We had to rely on the scoring of Bol to make up for the absence of our gunners, Calvin [Oftana], Jordan Heading, and Roger Pogoy, who was off his game. That’s why it was Bol who had to take up the bulk of the scoring for us,” Reyes acknowledged.
Bol Bol picked up the slack all right, firing 50 of TNT’s 97 points, including 14 in the final period—where the Tropa finally brushed aside the Giant Risers for their fifth win in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
The TNT Bol Bol Conundrum
But, as it turns out, Bol Bol being so good is a double-edged sword—and that’s something Reyes has already pointed out. He stressed it again after TNT’s win over Titan Ultra.
“That’s the problem when you have a super import, an import who can score at will. The locals have a tendency to watch him—and that’s not good for us,” Reyes said.
Now, it’s up to the Tropa to find the right balance between Bol-watching and stepping up on offense themselves.
“We still keep trying to find that balance, but like I said, for this game, without Roger, without Jordan Heading, and Calvin, then he had to step up,” Reyes added. “But that should not be the way our game goes. We should be able to get better scoring from a lot more people.”
The good news for Reyes is that the same players he mentioned—Oftana, Pogoy, and Heading—are all capable of scoring in bunches, alongside Jayson Castro, Rey Nambatac, and even big men Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Kelly Williams.
They’ll just need to find their rhythm again.
