NLEX was giving it to San Miguel in their clash Friday night until a forgettable third quarter took place.
Down by just one, the Beermen uncorked a 32-6 blitz en route to an 88-63 advantage. In case you’re wondering, San Miguel scored a whopping 46 points in that third chapter alone.
Though the Road Warriors managed to come close down the stretch as the opposition went lax, the after-effects of that explosion by San Miguel was still felt so bad. NLEX lost, 105-109.
McCullough scored half of the Beermen’s output in the said period, built on four three-pointers. The former NBA cager would finish with 47 points, on top of 10 rebounds and two steals.
“We had a really disastrous third quarter. I think they scored more than 40 plus points and the import scored 23 points – more than what we scored as a team,” said NLEX head coach Yeng Guiao.
“We got outscored by one person in the third quarter,” added Guiao, as his team only had 17 in the third.
The outspoken mentor admitted that they did not expect McCullough to deliver the goods right away. What they expected is that the 24-year-old will have a feeling-out game in his debut.
“We’ve seen some of the film clips or video of the import, we knew he could shoot the outside shot,” Guiao said.
“But we were still hoping that maybe it would be an adjustment period.
“He actually shot poorly from the three points in the first half. Noong second half lang pumutok talaga,” he added, as McCullough only made two of his nine attempts from three in the first half.
With this, Guiao said the Beermen won the gamble in changing imports, from Charles Rhodes to McCullough.
“Actually, puwedeng masama yung first game ng import mo eh. So it’s a gamble. And San Miguel I think won the gamble in changing their import,” said the decorated bench strategist.
Still, Guiao lauded his Road Warriors’ efforts despite suffering their eighth loss in 10 games in this mid-season joust.
“I like the way we came back. If there’s anything positive about this game is down twenty-eight, we lost by only four points. We were there all the way until the end,” Guiao said.
“Too bad, sabi ko nga kung hindi ganoon kalaki yung lead noong third quarter, we would have been still in the game. That happens. And as I said, it’s a lesson learned for us.”
