Second-year Magnolia Hotshots head coach Chito Victolero took the blame following the Magnolia Hotshots’ loss to the San Miguel Beermen on Sunday night at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City, which put an end to their five-game winning streak.
“I think medyo meron din akong konting kulang na adjustment,” admitted Victolero after their 76-77 loss.
“Sabi ko nga sa mga players ko, ‘di lang nila fault, but some of the nangyari meron din akong kasalanan.”
That adjustment Victolero rued was the way he handled the situation in the fourth quarter, where they lost hold of a 10-point lead through an 18-7 rally by the defending champions, and fell to a 69-70 deficit in the final three minutes.
“We slowed it down which is gusto ng San Miguel,” shared Victolero. “For the first three quarters we kept on running eh, and dun na nawala sa’min nung fourth quarter. Yun, yung adjustment na yun.
“Expect naman na San Miguel, ‘di naman yan maggi-giveup agad. They are the defending champions, and expect na they will come back dun sa fourth quarter.”
Aside from that lapse on his part and their end-game execution, Victolero also saw the need for the Hotshots to be more aggressive on offense. In this recent loss, they only shot 2-of-7 free throws — far from SMB’s 20-of-27.
“We need to improve being aggressive… Baka kulang pa yung [pagiging] agresibo namin kasi seven free throws lang kami eh,” the youthful mentor said.
“Kailangan pa namin siguro maging agresibo sa opensa namin para at least ‘di kami talo sa free throws.”
Sunday clearly wasn’t the day for Magnolia, who dropped to second — tied with the Alaska Aces — with a 6-2 card. Despite that, Victolero remains upbeat, saying that this has served as a wake-up call for his team.
“Ang maganda lang dun, we learned something from this game,” said the 42-year-old bench strategist. “Nakita namin kung nasaan kami ngayon.
“We need to experience this kind of games going into the last phase ng eliminations and going to the playoffs. We need to experience this kind of character[-testing] game[s] which is we know we have a chance,” Victolero added.
“So kung dumating kami sa dulo, sa playoffs, pag meron kaming ganitong laro, alam na namin gagawin namin.”
