NLEX built a mountain, watched San Miguel Beer chip away at it, then made sure it never came crumbling down. The Road Warriors survived a furious fourth-quarter surge from the Beermen to escape with a 110-96 win on Sunday, July 26, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The victory pushed NLEX to a perfect 4-0 record atop Group A in the PBA Governors Cup, tying the franchise’s best-ever start.

Bolick, Winston Power NLEX Through SMB’s Late Push

DeQuan Jones led all NLEX scorers with 27 points and 10 rebounds, but it was the early aggression from Schonny Winston and Robert Bolick that set the tone. The duo helped NLEX surge to a commanding 64-41 lead by halftime, with Winston alone scoring 20 of his 24 points before the break.

“I think a lot of what we do starts with Schonny and Berto,” said coach Jimmy Alapag of his backcourt tandem. “I thought their aggressiveness early, again, helped set the tone for our team because they can do so much. They can score from the perimeter, they can attack the basket, and so they’ve been great for us so far.”

San Miguel refused to fold, chipping a 25-point deficit down to single digits behind Don Trollano, who erupted for 11 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter to cut the gap to 82-90 with 9:38 remaining. But Bolick steadied NLEX down the stretch, drilling a 4-pointer and dishing out the final four of his 12 assists to Robert Herndon, Jones and Anthony Semerad to push the lead back to 110-93 with just over a minute left.

“Trollano’s one of the best shooters in the league and he got going,” Alapag said. “But I thought our poise in the second half was great for the young team that we have, and we were able to get stops and score when we needed to get the win.”

SMB’s Turnovers, Cold Shooting Doom Comeback Bid

Winston hit his first seven shots, including two 3-pointers, on his way to 24 points, while Semerad added 15 points on five 3-pointers, Bolick chipped in 14 and Herndon finished with 12. Alapag called the win a measuring-stick moment for his young roster.

“Really proud of our guys. Any time you play San Miguel, with all their championship experience, it’s always a great test for a young team,” he said. “But I thought we were very resilient, especially in the second half.”

The loss snapped San Miguel’s own 3-0 start despite a game-high 31 points from George King, who also committed nine of the team’s 18 turnovers. The Beermen shot just 6-of-23 from beyond the arc, got outrebounded 52-46, missed 15 free throws and finished minus-13 in second-chance points.

Coach Leo Austria made his first appearance on the SMB bench but sat out coaching duties as deputy Peter Martin continued to call the shots. June Mar Fajardo added 16 points before exiting with 1:08 left, while CJ Perez, Jericho Cruz and Jerrick Ahanmisi combined for just 12 points in the loss.