Kevin Alas heaved a sigh of relief as he and NLEX overcame foul woes on the way to upending Converge to get back on track in the PBA Governors’ Cup.
The Road Warriors’ main man committed three of his four personal fouls just in the first half, where the team already had 14, with eight of which coming from Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Jake Pascual as both bigs had four each.
Thirty-four fouls were called on the MVP Group-owned team upon the conclusion of the match it won. Both squads combined for a total of 69 fouls.
“It’s all just God’s grace,” said Alas during the postgame press conference of their 116-112 victory at the SMART Araneta Coliseum, Saturday night. “First half, four fouls. Jake and Brandon, ako, three fouls.”
Alas himself shone the brightest in the skid-ending win, tying his career-high of 31 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the floor with two steals.
He basically took over in the most important stretch, weaving his magic in inside the final 59.1 seconds of the match that saw him force Jamaal Franklin to a turnover before nailing a big trey to give them a 113-109 lead.
And when Franklin pulled the FiberXers to within one, the 31-year-old was there to keep them at bay, calmly sinking both of his free throws to stretch their lead to three, 115-112, with 19.6 seconds left to play.
It was once again a performance to remember for the soon-to-be All-Star, which was fueled by their desire to give Wayne Selden Jr. his first win.
(C) Julius Domondon/ arangkadaNLEX.com
The former NBA cager hasn’t tasted a triumph since coming over to take the place of Jonathon Simmons and the Road Warriors wanted to change that.
Fittingly, he was the one who sealed the deal by splitting his charities with 7.9 seconds left to play, eventually settling the final count.
“It’s our first win with Wayne, at the same time motivated din kami na bigyan siya ng first win namin,” said Alas.
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The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
