The seven-month layoff did little to dull the shooting of Cebuano hotshot Roger Pogoy as he hit the ground running to help the TNT Tropang Giga stay undefeated in the 2020 PBA Philippine Cup.
The Talisay City native did not take long to heat up inside the bubble as he torched the Alaska Aces for a career-high 45 points highlighted by 10 makes from beyond the arc in their season-opening 100-95 victory.
Although he was a lot less explosive in his next two games, Pogoy was just as effective as he tallied solid numbers of 11 points, nine rebounds and two steals in TNT’s 112-101 rout of TerraFirma before registering 15 points and four boards in the Tropang Giga’s 107-88 thrashing of the defending champions San Miguel Beermen last Friday.
The high school product of the University of Cebu played limited minutes against San Miguel after he sustained an ankle injury in the third quarter.
Those numbers propelled the 28-year-old guard to become the first ever PBA Press Corps bubble Player of the Week for the period Oct. 11-18. Pogoy beat out teammate Ray Parks Jr. and Phoenix Super LPG stalwart Matthew Wright for the weekly citation given by members of the media covering the PBA beat.
“Hindi ko in-expect na ganito kaganda yung ilalaro ko pero noong lockdown kasi, kundisyon pa rin ako kaya masaya na nagbunga yung pinagpaguran ko,” said Pogoy, the sharp-shooting Gilas Pilipinas sniper, who normed 23. 7 points on 44-percent 3-point clip, 7.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 2.0 steals per game.
But as big as his numbers were during the opening week, Pogoy put more stock on TNT’s immaculate 3-0 start as the only stat that matters to him.
“Happy ako kasi maganda performance, tapos nananalo pa yung team. Sabi nga ng teammates ko, tuloy-tuloy lang daw. Wala pa dapat i-celebrate kasi four games pa lang. Malayo pa ito,” he added. (JNP)