Lightning did not strike thrice for Matthew Wright and the Phoenix Fuel Masters
For the third straight game, the Phoenix Fuel Masters were trailing entering the final frame against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters. However, there was no miracle this time, as Phoenix’s two-game winning streak was snapped, 97-82, dropping their slate to an even 4-4.
For almost the entirety of the game, the Fuel Masters struggled to find their shots, shooting a woeful 32-of-101 from the field.
“We missed 50 shots in the two-points. We missed a lot of easy shots,” first-year Phoenix head coach Ariel Vanguardia lamented.
“Against teams like Rain or Shine, hindi ka puwede magkamali ng ganung karami dahil they’ll make you pay.”
One of the Fuel Masters who struggled to find the rim was rookie Matthew Wright. The Filipino-Canadian, who is averaging 18.7 points on 41.7 percent shooting, finished the game with 26 points but needed 29 attempts to do so.
“It’s just one of those days. I felt like there was a lid on the rim today,” the Gilas cadet reflected.
“I believe I can make every shot. Today, I missed a lot of uncharacteristic shots, but I can’t stop being aggressive because I missed some shots here and there. Maybe I forced a couple of shots, but I just try my best, especially rebounding the ball, and trying to get my teammates involved.”
The 25-year-old gunslinger tried to will Phoenix in the final quarter, helping cut the lead to just nine points, 81-72, with 6:04 remaining. However, he simply could not stop the bleeding, missing eight of his 12 attempts during crunch time.
“I’m just trying to score as much as possible to give us a chance every night. If it comes out to be 20, 30, 40, or less than 10, it doesn’t matter as long as I’m efficient, which I wasn’t today, so you can chalk that loss to me,” the product of St. Bonaventure rued.
“I’ll take the blame for that.”
His desire to carry the team, and his tenacity on the boards (Wright finished with a career-high 12 rebounds), drew praise from his mentor.
“Aside from Matt, walang maganda ang laro sa backcourt. Simon [Enciso] was awful today, Gelo [Allolino] was on and off, and it’s not the usual game of Cyrus [Baguio],” the one-time ABL champion coach said.
“Hindi puwedeng isa lang ang maganda ang laro. Si Matt lang ang maganda ang laro, di puwedeng ganun. Simon, [Mark] Borbs, JC, Cyrus have to step-up para ma-match natin yung ganitong ka-loaded na team.”
For Wright though, there’s no time to sulk. as the conference winds down to its last three games. And it’s time to get back to the drawing board for them.
“We’re nowhere near where we need to be.
“We have a lot of potential still, but we got to start tying things together towards the latter end of the [conference],” Wright said.
