Magnolia heaved a sigh of relief after losing for the first time in the PBA Season 48 Commissioner’s Cup last Saturday in Cagayan de Oro.
Head coach Chito Victolero offered that the Hotshots’ 113-110 shock loss to Rain or Shine eased the pressure on the entire squad after being unbeaten for nine long months counting their PBA On Tour campaign.
From the preseason tourney to the season-opening conference, the team went 18-0 before bowing to the suddenly-streaking Elasto Painters.
“I think we’re OK naman,” he said. “Medyo nawala rin ‘yung konting pressure sa amin. because most of the people, hinihintay kami matalo e.”
The champion mentor said that his squad had always been aware that the end to their perfect run would end soon, but never had any idea when.
But as most players and coaches often say, it’s better to lose sooner than later, and that, without a doubt, very much applies to Magnolia.
That’s because even with that loss, the Hotshots were still able to sit on top of the standings following a 104-91 bounce-back victory over the struggling Terrafirma on Wednesday night at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
Victolero was proud of the way his charges responded to his simple reminder pregame, which was to refrain from committing the same mistakes in CdO.
“Very happy, very proud of the players,” the champion mentor said. “I talked to T-Bey before the start of the game and I told him to start strong. Paul is also looking for his shots, he’s very aggressive, so were Jio and our big guys.
“When the second group came in like Ian and Mark, they also contributed very well,” he added. “Malaking bagay ‘yung naka-focus sila. Pag gusto naman ng players namin na ganun, meron din kaming chance na manalo.
“Ang kanina lang na sinabi ko sa kanila was I don’t want to happen ‘yung nangyari sa Cagayan na bad start. Nag-respond naman sila.”
The win not only brought them back into the win column but also boosted their chances of finishing among the top four teams by the end of the eliminations, which merits a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals.
Victolero is vocal with their plans of accomplishing as much, and that would be their main motivation as they head into their last two games of the preliminaries versus Converge on December 23 and Meralco on January 6.
“We respect our opponents. That’s the word: respect. Our target is the incentive sa quarterfinals. We have that goal,” he said.
