Despite monster Game 1 effort, June Mar feels he still didn’t do enough
San Miguel Beer cornerstone June Mar Fajardo practically had Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone dumbfounded on Sunday night after shooting 27 points and hauling down 23 rebounds in the Beermen’s 99-90 loss to the Gin Kings that opened up their PBA Philippine Cup semifinal series.
And while Cone heaped praises on the 6-foot-10 big man, Fajardo left the confines of the Smart Araneta Coliseum still feeling that he didn’t do enough.
“I still came up short, because we lost,” Fajardo told reporters in Filipino—practically throwing caution to the wind—when told of his stat line after the Beermen saw a 10-game winning streak come to an end to trail in the best-of-seven series. “We need to bounce back, we need to regroup.”
Ginebra turned up the heat in the fourth period, outscoring the Beermen, 27-17, as reserve wingmen Norbert Torres and Ralph Cu delivered key triples each for Cone to eventually deal the defending champions their first loss since a 109-103 defeat at the hands of lowly Phoenix last Oct. 12.
“We’re just happy we were able to pull off this one despite June Mar having a big game,” Cone said after taking a 1-0 lead. “Credit to June Mar; that’s how good he is, that’s how good he’s been.”
Fajardo, the only nine-time league MVP, could be talking about missing seven of his 12 free throws when he said that he still didn’t do enough.
Double team takes its toll
He faced a consistent double team the entire night, fagging out his 35-year-old body in the process.
“We obviously played a tag team on (Fajardo) with Japeth (Aguilar) and Norbert,” Cone explained. “They did the best that they could.”
Aguilar and Torres both had to deal with foul trouble in the process of trying to hold down the gentle San Miguel giant.
“It’s physically daunting to guard a guy that big and that strong,” Cone went on. “Both (Aguilar and Torres) are exhausted just guarding the single guy.”
Game 2 of this series is set at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, also at the fabled Big Dome and though he never really said it, Fajardo knows that he will still be the central figure in all of this.
“He’s just that kind of player. Wow,” Cone said as he started plotting a game plan for the second game, where they would again need to limit—if it can really be done—Fajardo.
“He played the whole fourth quarter too, the whole 12 minutes of the fourth quarter,” said the Ginebra coach. “So amazing, man.”
