Of the 12 shots he took from the foul line, Prince Ibeh only made one.
His poor free throw shooting negated his outing, as he collected 15 points, 19 rebounds, and six blocks in the NorthPort Batang Pier’s 83-79 win over the NLEX Road Warriors on Saturday evening for a 2-0 start in the 2019 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Ibeh himself admitted that it was all a mental lapse in his part.
“I kinda psyched myself out and rushed the shots, and just kinda missed it before I even shot it,” said the 24-year-old moments after the match.
“So I’ll just go by and go back to basics and put some shots up and get it fixed.”
It wasn’t just the 6-foot-9 Ibeh who struggled from the charity stripe, though; rather, all of the Batang Pier made just 15 of their 34 free throws, drawing the ire their head coach in Pido Jarencio.
“Tomorrow start ng practice free throws kaagad. [Marami] ang miniss namin,” he said. “Hindi dapat ganon.
“PBA ito eh.”
But as bad as his and his team’s performance was, Ibeh is still glad that they were able to get ways en route to the victory. NorthPort had actually been down by 11 early to a Road Warriors team that did not have an import.
‘We’re glad we gutted it out. [We will] just try to erase it (bad game) from memory and move forward,” said Ibeh.
And as for himself, Ibeh – who’s currently averaging 17.0 points, 16.0 rebounds, and 4.0 blocks – vowed to put out much better showings in the Batang Pier’s next games. NorthPort next go up against Terrence Jones and TNT KaTropa on May 29.
“Yeah, for sure. Hundred-percent.”
