It’s a sin in basketball to overly rely on just a couple of players
In Globalport Batang Pier’s case, Saturday night’s quarterfinal quarterfinals clash against TNT proved to be the worst time to be inflicted with a bad offensive outing.
The Batang Pier took off to a promising start — even leading by 12 early — but failed to close out the match strongly. And as the final buzzer sounded, Globalport found themselves at the losing end, 109-101, and down 0-1.
And for Globalport head coach Franz Pumaren, their loss stems from the lowly contribution of some of the players in a time they needed the most.
“We didn’t get any production from my other guys,” lamented Pumaren. “The second group really didn’t contribute.”
“They made a run, but the momentum swung [already in favor of] Talk N Text.”
Pumaren was pinpointing his usual scorers who produced below their usual numbers. Due to TNT’s stifling coverage, players such as Mike Cortez and KG Cañaleta suffered.
Cortez, who had 12 and 15-point outings in Globalport’s two of the last three games in the eliminations, was only limited to just seven markers. On the other hand, Cañaleta, who norms 9.1 points in the same phase, finished with just eight.
Globalport as a whole shot poorly, hitting just 36 of their 84 attempts from the field. Furthermore, from the 13 offensive rebounds they garnered, Globalport only managed to turn it to 13 points.
And in the defensive side, the Batang Pier failed to capitalize on TNT’s 17 turnovers, converting just a measly eight points from those mishandled possessions by the opposition.
Adding to Globalport’s woes on that bad night was the lengthy minutes given to the Slash Brothers — Terrence Romeo and Stanley Pringle, who finished with 28 and 19 points, respectively.
During the eliminations, Romeo and Pringle were playing an average of 35.8 and 34.4 minutes per game each. But in Game 1, the prolific tandem played longer than usual.
Romeo, a Best Player of the Conference candidate for this All-Filipino Cup, clocked 40:06 minutes, while Pringle logged in 33:37 minutes on the floor. The duo played a combined 74 minutes.
Pumaren, in his part, admitted that he did stretch their playing time in purpose, since he could not find any offensive firepower from his other wards.
“Looking at the history of the conference, Stanley and Terrence play well when they have limited minutes on the court. But this time, I was forced to extend their minutes,” explained Pumaren.
As a result, the fiery backcourt tandem had subpar shooting. Romeo shot 10-of-28 — 5-of-9 in the final frame along with two turnovers, while Pringle shot 8-of-16 from the field, combining for 18-of-44 from the field en route to a 40.9 percent clip.
“And I guess, I can say that this is our worst game of the conference,” furthered the 53-year-old mentor with regards to all the lapses the Batang Pier made that equated to the defeat.
Despite the loss, however, Pumaren still likes his Batang Pier’s chances of giving the Katropa a run for their money and in sending the series to a 1-1 deadlock on Game 2.
“I’m still confident that we can level the series on Monday,” Pumaren said.
