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Even his scoring outburst came as a surprise for John Tayongtong.
Playing limited minutes with Wangs Basketball this 2017 PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup, the former Emilio Aguinaldo standout had his best game to date on Tuesday as it seemed like every shot he threw found the bottom of the net.
“When I felt that my shots were going in, I just continued what I was doing,” Tayongtong said in Filipino.
Tayongtong was on fire, finishing with a game-high 39 points on a 14-of-19 clip from the field, including 5-of-6 shooting from threes.
“I’m even surprised that I scored that high. I did not play that much in our past games and today, my shots were just falling,” he said.
His scoring explosion, however, went down the drain as Wangs fell to its fourth straight defeat after an 84-74 loss to Cafe France.
“It was really unfortunate because I had 39 points but we lost,” he said. “We expected them to fight back, but we committed turnovers and lost hold of the game.”
It also didn’t help that the Couriers, who dropped further down the standings at 1-4, were out-rebounded, 61-39.
“We’re really undersized against them so we had to be more aggressive in boxing out,” he said.
But with the way Wangs performed against a contender like Cafe France, Tayongtong is confident that sooner or later, his team can snap out of its funk and make a late run to the playoffs.
“I hope we build on this for our next game and bounce back from our losses,” he said.
The Couriers play Batangas on Tuesday at JCSGO Gym in Cubao.