Saturday night was just his second game in the PBA, but unfortunately, Terrence Jones didn’t get to finish it.
With to 2:11 to spare in the 2019 PBA Commissioner’s Cup clash between the TNT KaTropa and the Alaska Aces, Jones got ejected for a flagrant foul penalty one when the referees deemed that he hit Aces forward Jake Pascual.
The former NBA cager got booted out from the match, as he had already incurred a technical foul prior. A player who gets called for both a technical and a flagrant foul infraction is automatically sent off the playing court.
“You know, I think it was a difficult call.
“I think the guy threw an elbow first to pin me on the ground, and then kinda like tried to step over me, and I tried to protect myself,” recalled the 27-year-old forward-center out of Kentucky.
“It was the first time a team tried to get under my skin and do extra stuff that wasn’t basketball-related,” Jones furthered. “But I’m not the ref so I’ll just stick to playing my game and just worrying about me and my team.”
Jones clearly isn’t too concerned with that ejection. All that he’s about is the win, which the KaTropa got, 99-85.
“Yeah, that’s what was important,” said Jones, who exited with 43 points on top of 22 rebounds, five assists, three steals, and two blocks in 44 minutes. “I just tried to stick to the plan, which was just so stay focused on basketball.
“And I think I did that ultimately that’s why we got the win.”
Jones also expressed his elation with his improved shooting. After going just 8-for-19 from the foul line in his debut last Sunday in their 102-87 win over NLEX, Jones made 8-of-11 from the stripe versus the Milkmen.
The 6-foot-9 stretch big man shot 53.6 percent from the floor as well, including 5-of-8 from deep.
“Yeah. I’ve been working very hard on it, that and shooting threes. And it showed today so I’m just happy about that and I wanna keep improving,” said Jones, who’s currently averaging 42.0 points, 19.0 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks.
The Texters are now 2-0 to start the mid-season joust. Jones is definitely happy about it, but he said that he and the team will still improve as the conference progresses since their goal is to make the playoffs.
“It’s great. I think we’re gonna keep getting better. We’re gonna keep learning one another, and keep building this chemistry until we get to the playoffs.”
