Tough night for Joshua Munzon as 46-point effort goes for naught

After saying that he could do more after his debut in the PBA D-League, Joshua Munzon raised his level in his next game.

In his AMA Titans’ clash with the UST Growling Tigers on Tuesday, Munzon exploded for 46 points – the second-most points in a game in league history – on 41.7 percent shooting, along with 11 rebounds, six steals, and four assists.

“I was just trying to win the game, honestly… Not really thinking about how many points I was going for, but just tryna win the ball game,” said the top overall pick of the 2018 D-League Draft.

“That was basically my mindset.”

But it’s too unfortunate that he can’t celebrate his an admirable outing.

Munzon and AMA fought until the very end, but the young Growling Tigers were the more composed unit down the stretch. UST walked out of the Paco Arena with the 113-108 victory in the bag to hike their card to 2-0.

“It’s definitely tough,” Munzon rued. “We gave up a lot of easy shots, we broke down a lot on defense. We just gotta get back to the drawing board. I feel like everybody tried their hardest but it was just the little things that we gave up on.

“We fell apart mentally as a team so we just gotta get better.”

That the Titans coughed up an 11-point lead at 78-67 makes the loss more bitter to swallow. They had the advantage in the third quarter as a result of a 15-3 scoring spree from a one-point deficit at the 4:12-mark, only to squander it.

“We got comfortable,” the 24-year-old from California lamented. “We had some mental lapses. We gave up open three after open three… You know, you give up open threes, eventually, guys are gonna knock those shots down.

“So we just gotta get better defensively and then go from there.”

Still, an impressive individual performance can’t be ignored. For Munzon, he felt like he did better than in his debut last week, so he hopes to keep rolling in their next games.

“It’s tough to judge with a loss. But at the same time, I definitely feel a little bit better out there,” the former ASEAN Basketball League Heritage Import said.

“So I just hope to continue this play in the upcoming games.”