MANILA, Philippines—It must’ve been surreal for Roger Pogoy to see Terrence Jones hype him up with every made three-pointer in TNT’s 104-96 win over Barangay Ginebra in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Pogoy admitted that he played as Jones in NBA 2K before, but he’s now got the former Houston Rocket telling him to fire away and that encouragement led the volume shooter to get into the PBA record books.
“I got my rhythm from him [Jones] because he kept passing me the ball,” said Pogoy in Filipino Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum. “Coach Mark [Dickell] always told us that Terrence is a good passer and we should always be ready when the defense focuses on him.”
Pogoy finished with 38 points, five rebounds, four assists, and four steals but what set his game apart were his 10 threes that made him just the fourth local player to breach the mark in a single game.
All throughout the PBA’s more than four decades of existence only four have made at least 10 three-pointers in a game and they are Pogoy, San Miguel’s Marcio Lassiter, and legends Allan Caidic and Kenneth Duremdes.
Pogoy, who’s part of the national team program, said that every time he got the ball from Jones, the former NBA forward would tell him to just shoot it and not think about anything else.
“He always tells me that when he passes me the ball, I should just shoot it,” said Pogoy. “I didn’t second guess so my confidence was just up there because it was him telling me to shoot it.”
Jones, meanwhile, put up a triple-double of 17 points, 14 rebounds, and 16 assists with six blocks and most of those dishes ended in a Pogoy triple.