ANTIPOLO - NLEX dominated the Macau Giant Pandas, 114-75, on Friday night in Jimmy Alapag's first game as PBA head coach in the Governors' Cup opening night at the Ynares Center.
The Road Warriors totally dominated the Giant Pandas and gave Alapag a memorable return to Philippine basketball scene after years spent as a players development coach of the Sacramento Kings in the NBA.
NLEX pulled away in the second half by outscoring Macau, 69-39, and even led by 43 points, 114-71, late in the fourth.
DeQuan Jones had 23 points and 11 rebounds, while Kevin Alas had one of his best games in recent times with 19 points for NLEX.
“I’m happy with the effort tonight,” Alapag said. “I think before the game, there was a little bit of uncertainty kasi we didn’t know [Macau's] complete lineup. From their last tune-up game to tonight, parang may bago na five to six players.
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"That’s always a cause of concern when you play a team like Macau. But again, I’m really happy with our guys’ effort.”
Only two players scored in double digits for Macau with Damian Chongqui contributing 35 points and De’Vondre Perry chipping in 26 in its first game of the conference.
The scores:
NLEX 114 – Jones 23, Alas 19, Gonzales 13, Bahio 11, Winston 10, Bolick 9, Ramirez 6, Torres 6, Valdez 5, Gamboa 5, Capulong 4, Nieto 3, Herndon 0, Racal 0, Rodger 0, Semerad 0.
Macau 75 – Chongqui 35, Perry 26, Cao 4, Liu 4, Lam 4, Li 2, Y. Zhang 0, Chao 0, Z. Zhang 0, Z. Zhu 0.
Quarters: 18-13; 45-36; 81-58; 114-75.
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