NLEX Road Warriors’ Don Trollano. –PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines—NLEX escaped a vicious fourth-quarter run from Converge to take home a 112-104 victory in the PBA On Tour at Ynares Sports Center in Pasig on Friday.
After leading by as much as 17 points, the Road Warriors fumbled the advantage and let the FiberXers trim the lead to just one, 91-90, with 8:53 left to play.
But with Don Trollano’s heroics, the Road Warriors were able to weather the late-game storm with 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists as NLEX improved to a 4-5 record.
“I think it was just my instinct as a player when I saw that they were chasing us and even Kevin (Alas) kind of got cold, I knew I needed to step up,” said Trollano in Filipino.
“We stayed composed, locked in on defense and we just got the lead back.”
Seeing that they were only holding a one-point cushion, coach Frankie Lim’s wards went on a 17-4 rally capped off by a bucket by Anthony Semerad to regain a 108-94 lead with 5:04 left.
In a last gasp effort, the FiberXers unloaded ten unanswered points, including back-to-back triples by Jolo Mendoza, to slash the deficit down to four, 108-104, with 1:17 left in the game.
Buckets by Ben Adamos and Sean Anthony sealed the deal for good for the Road Warriors.
Alas chipped in big on offense for NLEX with 25 points to his name while Anthony also tallied 23 to go along with seven boards.
Mendoza top scored for the FiberXers, who dropped to a 5-5 card, with 23 markers as Nieto also capped off the game with 19 to his name in a losing effort.