TNT Katropa skipper Jayson Castro left the Cuneta Astrodome perplexed Friday evening. And it was not about the lack of traffic in the metro despite the warnings raised prior to this day.
The Katropa, though having a huge advantage in the majority of the stats, they still managed to end up on the losing end against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 79-82.
“Yun nga rin pinagtataka ko, lahat ng stats panalo kami,” lamented the 31-year-old, moments after the game.
The stat sheet yielded disparities that went in favor of the Texters, with rebounds having the widest gap at 73-54. Assists came in second (18-13), followed by blocks (8-5), and lastly by turnovers forced (19-16).
Even the Blur himself had quite an outing in their season opener, collecting a game-high 18 points on 14 shots on top of 10 dimes and nine boards.
But what put their numbers into total waste was the way the Katropa shot the ball. They launched a whopping 102 attempts all through out the match, but managed to make only 30 out of the plethora of shots they had taken.
“Siguro kung pansin niyo rin, sobrang sama [rin] ng outside shots namin,” shared the nine-year pro, as TNT made just eight of their 38 triples in the contest.
“Yun, kailangan naming i-work ‘yon, at ma-execute yung mga plays naming bago.”
Still, Castro saw some positives in the defeat, noting the big second half surge TNT made — highlighted by their 17-4 run early in the fourth and the back-to-back triples he and Kelly Williams made in the final seconds that scared Rain or Shine.
“Yung second half naman namin maganda eh,” opined the six-time PBA champion. “And yun nga, sobrang aggressive na namin both on defense and offense…
“Good news pa rin sa’min yon, kahit natalo kami.”
As the Katropa are now putting this loss behind them, Castro now hopes that the excellent numbers they put up against RoS would translate to wins next time.
“Hopefully sa next game, sana yung stats na ganoon, manalo na kami.”
