NLEX guard Robert Bolick reached a new milestone in his Philippine Basketball Association career right at the final buzzer on Saturday.
The streaky scorer drained a triple as time expired to set a new career-high 46 points and ice the Road Warriors’ 115-93 blowout win over winless Converge in the Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Bolick was on fire, hitting 17-of-26 from the field including 12-of-14 from the perimeter to fuel NLEX to their second straight win for a 3-1 win-loss record.
His fiery shooting erased his previous personal-best of 44 while wearing NorthPort uniform in a 101-95 overtime win over Meralco in last season’s Commissioner’s Cup back on 30 September 2022.
The 28-year-old admitted that he did chase the new career milestone in the waning moments of the match.
“During the (early part) of the game, I wasn’t really thinking about it. Just during the closing stretch,” Bolick, who once dropped 50 during his days with San Beda University in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, said.
Bolick already had 36 points late in the third when he was recalled to the bench by head coach Frankie Lim.
He would stay on his seat for much of the fourth quarter NLEX opened a big gap courtesy of consecutive treys by Rob Herndon.
Bolick checked in with 5:57 left. He completed a three-point play for his first basket of the fourth period followed by back-to-back layups to move within one point of his previous career-high.
“I’m just happy for my players especially this guy (Bolick) with a new career-high. He played very well with pick-and-rolls,” Lim said of his prized ward, who dished out eight assists and had five rebounds.
Herndon had 17 points while Jhan Nermal made 13 to backstop Bolick.
The FiberXers remained winless in four starts.
Justine Arana had 20 points, Bryan Santos finished with 18 while Alec Stockton and Schonny Winston chipped in 13 and 10 markers, respectively, for Converge.
Box Scores:
NLEX (115) – Bolick 46, Herndon 17, Nermal 13, Amer 10, Ular 6, Valdez 5, Nieto 4, Semerad 4, Charcos 3, Rodger 3, Fajardo 2, Marcelo 2, Pascual 0, Miranda 0
CONVERGE (93) – Arana 20, Santos 18, Stockton 13, Winston 10, Ambohot 8, Melecio 5, Delos Santos 4, Vigan 4, Fornilos 3, Balanza 3, Nieto 3, Zaldivar 2, Caralipio 0, Maagdenberg 0
Quarters: 24-28, 54-52, 84-71, 115-93
