DON TROLLANO scored a career-high 44 points proving once more that that he’s one of the league’s most underrated players as NLEX routed Terrafirma, 142-125, on Thursday in Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
But the former Adamson University Soaring Falcon wasn’t totally happy about his performance.
“I was trying to get 50 points—50 because it’s Asi’s [Taulava] 50th birthday,” he said.
Trollano already had 20 ploints in the firsty half and continued torching the net in the final two quarters to wind up with an outstanding 17 of 23 shooting from the field.
He made nine of 11 attempts from beyond the arc to send the Road Warriors to the eight-team quarterfinals with their 7-3 won-lost record.
“It’s a crucial game so we really needed to win to get to the top four [quarterfinals],” Trollano said.
Records were set in the game—NLEX’s 23 three-pointers tied the league all-time record San Miguel Beer and TNT set twice and broke the franchise’s own mark of 21 triples in its 122-101 victory over Blackwater in March 2019.
But for NLEX coach Frankie Lim, it’s the win that mattered.
“For me, what’s important is the win while the scores, the record will just come in,” he said.
Import Wayne Selden Jr. had 38 points, six rebounds and eight assists while Brandon Rosser-Ganuelas finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds and Kevin Alas contributed 15 points for NLEX.
NLEX posted its biggest lead in the fourth quarter at 116-88.
Juami Tiongson’s 38 points and Jordan Williams’ 29 points went to naught for Terrafirma which dropped to a 2-7 card.