NLEX leaned on hustle—and mostly luck—in the endgame to avert disaster versus Terrafirma and escape with the 101-100 victory to go 2-0 in the PBA Season 50 Governors’ Cup, Saturday at the Ynares Center II in Montalban.
The Road Warriors already built a comfortable 90-67 cushion entering the payoff period but the Dyip rallied back behind Justin Strings and the veteran tandem of Maverick Ahanmisi and Juami Tiongson to impose a major threat.
The trio joined hands for a 9-0 run, capped by the new import’s tough jumper off an isolation set, to cut the gap to just a point with 42.7 seconds left.
NLEX got itself in a truly precarious situation when Xyrus Torres and Robert Bolick missed the potential dagger, but managed to defend well enough to deny Tiongson and Strings from getting any good look in the final possession.
“I think you have to give a lot of credit to Terrafirma. I thought they played great. I have to do a better job. I don’t think I did a very good job in that fourth quarter,” said Coach Jimmy Alapag as they got blown out in the fourth, 11-33.
“I think the zone gave us some issues, and that’s credit to Terrafirma and their staff. But I thought we were able to get the stops we needed,” he added.
