BUCKING ANEMIC STARTS
Coach LA Tenorio said Magnolia can’t afford to start off slow and think that it can come back with just a flip of the switch.
“Most of our games, we start really flat,” Tenorio said after the Hotshots recovered from a bum start before defeating the skidding Blackwater Bossing, 90-75, in the PBA Philippine Cup on Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The win put Magnolia in a logjam at 5-2, as the Hotshots bounced back from a close defeat at the hands of San Miguel Beer exactly a week ago in faraway Rodriguez, Rizal.
And like the meeting with the Beermen, when they had to buck a big deficit in the first half before falling short, the Hotshots had to respond from a 12-point deficit that came in the second period against a side that came into the match inches short of scoring an upset over the Converge FiberXers.
Magnolia got major contributions from Javi Gomez de Liaño, who broke out of a slump to fire 17 points, before Raffy Verano, a free agent pickup in the offseason after being let go by the Phoenix Fuel Masters, came through with some key shots plus his usual contribution on defense.
Verano finished with 12 points on 5 of 7 shooting for his best game since joining the Hotshots.
Tenorio knows Magnolia can still perform at an even higher level, which he will try to sort out during the league’s three-week break necessitated by the first window of the Fiba World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
When action resumes, Magnolia has an acid test on hand in Converge and Gomez de Liaño’s brother, Juan, on Dec. 5 at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City.
“I always tell the players that we should not expect anything, especially on offense,” Tenorio said, putting emphasis on Magnolia’s defense-first mindset. “What we expect going into the game is to get stops from start to finish, and we have to win every quarter.
“For us to win every quarter, we have to start better,” he went on. “We can’t have slow starts on offense and slow starts on defense. We cannot be like that.
“But I’d rather have a score of 2-2, 4-2, 8-2, 10-8 than a bit of a high-scoring first quarter and then we’re down. That’s not our game,” he added.
Ian Sangalang was also key for Magnolia with 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists, Zavier Lucero put up 13 points and 10 rebounds while Jerom Lastimosa added 10 points, four rebounds, seven assists and four steals.
Blackwater fell in a tie at the bottom with Terrafirma at 1-6, as it has yet to win since blowing out the Dyip to open their campaign last month.
Sedrick Barefield had 16 points, five rebounds and three assists for the losing side.
