Xyrus Torres had a breakout performance in his young PBA career as the stocky but shifty swingman played a near perfect game and lighted up NLEX to a dominating 109-95 triumph over Rain or Shine in the Philippine Cup Saturday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
A third-round selection of the Road Warriors in this season’s Rookie Draft, Torres hit 5-of-6 three-point attempts and made all of his six shots from the two-point range. His three-point play off a foul from Leonard Santillan with 2:35 left in the match, capped his sterling performance as he ended up with a personal-high 28 points on an 11-of-12 shooting from the field.
Torres’ torrid shooting sparked the Road Warriors’ sizzling performance against the Elasto Painters.
As a team, NLEX shot a high 55.3% shooting from the field, including 11-of-18 stint from beyond the arc.
Aside from Torres, another player who stepped up big offensively was Tony Semerad, who connected on 4-of-5 attempts from downtown.
“I just wanted to pay back the coaches for the opportunity that they’ve been giving me,” said Torres. “I was overwhelmed by the opportunity because I never thought as a rookie, bibigyan ako ng ganyang klaseng trust ng mga coaches.”
NLEX coach Jong Uichico added that giving Torres the baptism of fire in his rookie season might turn out to be good for the young man’s career in the long run.
“The past conference, 30-plus minutes kaagad siya per game, so baka napi-pressure rin siya, so it’s not fair for Xy, but he stepped up in tonight’s game and he realized ito ang kailangan,” said Uichico. “I think Xy was more challenged with his role.”
It was a big bounce-back victory for the Road Warriors, who lost to San Miguel Beer in their debut game a few days ago.
Earlier, NorthPort turned to its usually-reliable gunner Arvin Tolentino in dumping Terrafirma, 97-75.
Tolentino flirted with a triple-double performance as he wound up with 19 points to go along with 12 assists and eight boards.
