MANILA, Philippines – NLEX, which had been denied the chance to advance to the PBA Governors’ Cup playoffs the previous two nights, made the most of the second chance.

A squad led by their previous coach Yeng Guiao, Rain or Shine, was the victim of the Road Warriors’ victory.

The Road Warriors stormed to a 110 to 99 victory over the Elasto Painters on Saturday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum thanks to a scorching 31 to 8 start that gave them their sixth victory of the season and secured their place in the quarterfinals.

The team headed by Frankie Lim swiftly made up for their mistakes in Thursday’s 98 to 114 defeat to Meralco, and at 6 to 3 overall, they joined early qualifiers TNT (8 to 1), San Miguel Beer (7 to 1) and Converge (6 to 2) in the next round.

The Road Warriors, more significantly, continued to compete for the coveted Top 4 seeds and twice-to-beat advantage.

We’re grateful to be in the quarterfinals, but our real goal is to get into the Top 4, according to Lim, whose team will strive to do this in its next two matches against Terrafirma and SMB.

If we defeat Terrafirma in our upcoming match, he continued, “then we’ll play San Miguel, and if we get one or two (wins), it would be beneficial for us (in our bid for the Top 4).”

As Lim’s first conference under his leadership, the Commissioner’s Cup, failed to advance NLEX into the playoff round, forcing them back into the Last-8.

According to Lim, “the importation additionally had a lot of something to do with it. Simms certainly contributed (first import Jonathon Simmons, who guided NLEX to a 4 to 0 start), and Wayne (Selden Jr.) has been doing a heck of a job with us.

I’m simply happy that everything is working well,” he concluded. In addition to Selden’s 21 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and Kevin Alas’ 28 points, the quarterfinal-clinching performance for NLEX featured 20 points from Don Trollano and eight points from Selden.

When ROS fell to 2 to 6, Rey Nambatac blasted in 26 to lead the way.

Scores at the end of the match:

NLEX with 110 points

Individual scores: Alas (28), Selden (21), Trollano (20), Miranda (8), Goliguez (8), Rosales (7), Ganuelas-Rosser (7), Nieto (6), and Pascual (4)

ROS with 99 points

Nambatac (26), Norwood (13), Demusis (12), Santillan (8), Mamuyac (7), Ildefonso, (7) Borboran (7), Caracut (5), Belga (4), Smith (3), Yap (3), Ponferrada (2), Asistio (0), and Clarito (0)

Scores per quarter:

33 to 13, 62 to 35, 80 to 66, and 110 to 99