ANTIPOLO – Kris Rosales was character personified as his timely fourth-quarter explosion enabled NLEX to upset San Miguel Beer for its first win of the PBA Season 48 Commissioner’s Cup on Wednesday night.
The seasoned guard fired 15 of his 19 points in the said period alone, including three straight triples to push the game into overtime as he orchestrated the Road Warriors’ gallant fightback from a 19-point third-quarter deficit.
He showed assertiveness on offense and there was really an effort, he said, to do so, especially after going scoreless in a little over eight minutes of action in their debut versus Phoenix Super LPG the last time out.
“I think part of being a professional is having character,” he offered during the postgame presser of their 117-113 victory at the Ynares Center here.
“I had a horrible first game, I had a horrible first half today. And I think part of being a professional is being able to forget that and move on to the next play.
“I’ve been in the league for almost seven, eight years, and you begin to see the pattern of when things don’t go your way, you just have to forget about it and just keep working,” added the no. 19 pick in the 2015 Rookie Draft.
Making his performance all the more satisfying for Rosales, though, was to see the play he wasn’t able to complete in practice work this time.
With 9.3 seconds left in regulation, and with NLEX trailing 102-105, Coach Frankie Lim drew up a play for the 32-year-old where he’d come off the curl for a triple. The latter successfully made the shot to tie the game up.
“The coaches saw I was hot and they ran a play for me. Coaches have shown trust in me throughout the past few conferences … they ran a play that we ran in practice before–I think they ran it for me in practice and I actually missed it,” he said.
“I went home that day and I was kinda mad, because I work on my shot a lot, When they ran it this time, I just told myself I was gonna knock it down.”
He did.
