EVAN Nelle believes that he's turning the corner in his first season with La Salle and is recapturing his old deadly form.
"I think so," he said as La Salle ripped University of Santo Tomas, 112-83, on Tuesday in the UAAP basketball tournament. "I'm actually really confident on how our team plays right now."
Nelle had a big hand in the rout as he made all of his four treys and wound up with 16 points, six assists, two rebounds.
Of those numbers, the 5-foot-11 guard was most elated for the six assists he dished out.
"What they were saying was just give it to Deschon [Winston] or whoever had the mismatch, just keep looking for open guys. Tuwang tuwa ako sa six assists ko," he said.
It was actually only the second time this season that Nelle had six assists to his name, the first coming in La Salle's first round duel against Far Eastern University.
The biggest difference, though, is he only had one turnover in this blowout, reducing his average of 2.25 errors in the first eight games of the campaign which led him to remark, "At least medyo ok na."
Derick Pumaren's Archers are running third at 6-3.
What helped in Nelle's confidence boost is how good the Green Archers have been performing.
The Archers dished out 25 assists that led to big games for Schonny Winston, who had a career-best 33 points, and an all-around game for Justine Baltazar who had 17 points, seven boards, seven assists, two steals, and one block.
"We're just embracing the system, doing what coach tells us to do, and adjusting every time. We're getting confident as the season goes by and sana tuloy-tuloy na," he said.
As for his own performance, Nelle is just keeping his focus on what he does best, set the table and be an impact player for La Salle.
"I'm just playing and I'm just doing my role," he said.
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