LA Tenorio owned up to his miscalculation in the dying seconds of Ginebra’s Game Three tussle against NLEX in Sunday’s PBA Governors’ Cup semis.
The decorated playmaker offered that it was ‘very unusual’ for him not to acknowledge that they were down by three — and not two — in the final seven seconds, the reason why he opted to go for a lay-up instead of a triple.
“‘Di ako aware. Na-disorient ako sa turnover ko,” he said moments after their 86-85 loss.
“I forgot eh. Kaya ‘di ko na nakita ‘yung scoreboard. It’s very unusual for me. Masyado ako na-ano sa turnover ko na napasa ko kay Brownlee.”
The turnover he referred to was his intercepted pass intended for Justin Brownlee, which led to a three-point play by Cameron Clark with 7.4 seconds left. It broke the deadlock and gave the Road Warriors an 86-83 lead.
“‘Yun nga mali ko. ‘Di ko na tiningnan scoreboard. Habang nagfe-free throw si Clark, ang nasa isip ko, ‘Get the ball and get something out of it.’ ‘Di ko na naisip na tatlo pala ‘yung lamang. Wala talagang idea,” the 37-year-old guard out of Ateneo said.
“Nawala sa isip ko and wala kaming timeouts. It’s very unusual for me to do that — most especially, in that kind of situation,” he added.
Gin Kings head coach Tim Cone said that the key for his long-time guard is to move on from it. For Tenorio, however, it won’t be that easy.
“Honestly it’s gonna be hard for me,” said the 15-year veteran, who finished with 10 points and nine assists in the stinging loss. “I’m gonna admit that it’s not gonna be easy for me to let this, parang, incident go.”
But being the vet that he is, Tenorio knows that he has to remain composed and not get too fervent in redemption on Game Four.
“As one of the vets in the team, I cannot deal with this. I have to battle,” he said. “Kailangan kong labanan sarili ko, starting with tomorrow sa practice.”
“And then Tuesday and most especially, sa Wednesday. Sa Wednesday, I cannot be too gigil to redeem myself. So I really have to battle,” he furthered.
“We’ll see… But itong game na ‘to, inaako ko mga nangyari.”
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