MANILA, Philippines – Following Barangay Ginebra’s shock 94-77 loss to the Blackwater Elite, LA Tenorio is taking some consolation in that it revealed the habits they should break moving forward into the season.  

Ginebra, which defeated Globalport in its previous outing in come-from-behind fashion, was on the verge of engineering another comeback win against the Elite as it trimmed a once 13-point deficit to just a point, only to lose gas in the fourth quarter.  

The loss marked Ginebra’s first of the young season and Tenorio is looking at it as a wake up call, especially since they are touted as the biggest threat to San Miguel’s 4-peat aspirations in the Philippine Cup.  

“Just like what I’ve said last game, ‘yung last game dapat talo na kami doon e and we didn’t learn from that. Ngayon kung baga nangyari na ‘yung dapat mangyari na supposedly na ‘yung last game pa so for me I’m looking at this game as a positive sign for us kasi if we win na naman this game parang it will hide again the room for improvement,” said Tenorio after the game on Friday, January 12.

(We should have lost the last game and we didn’t learn from that. Now, what happened is what should have happened last game so for me, I’m looking at this game as a positive sign for us because if we win, it will hide again the room for improvement.) 

“Kasi pag nananalo ka di mo naman papansinin ‘yung mga mali mo e kasi when you’re winning. You think you’re doing the right thing, diba? So I think it’s good for us to see.” 

(If you constantly win, you do not look out for your mistakes because you think that you’re doing the right thing, right? So I think it’s good for us to see.) 

The veteran team Ginebra was outscored 30-16 by the younger team Blackwater in the fourth quarter.

For Tenorio, it is just right that they now realize that they cannot just overcome big deficits whenever they want to. 

“We cannot play this kind of game, especially going to the playoffs and playing top teams. Kung we played against San Miguel or Talk ‘N Text or NLEX or whoever Meralco, malamang tinambakan kami ngayon,” said Tenorio. 

(We cannot play this kind of game, especially going to the playoffs and playing top teams. If we played against San Miguel or Talk ‘N Text or NLEX or Meralco or whoever, we would have lost by a big margin.)

Although Ginebra head coach Tim Cone previously stated that his wards still have a championship hangover after they won the Governors’ Cup title last October, the veteran point guard is not one to make it an excuse for their repetitive lethargic starts.

“You know, it’s not an excuse anymore kasi we played two games already e. I think it’s more of us, the character, the attitude of the team. We think that we can just switch on the game. Pag gusto namin, laro na kami, diba? Hindi pwede ‘yung ganoon, we have to play consistent and we have to play as if we’re the underdogs.”

(It’s not an excuse anymore because we played two games already. I think it’s more of us, the character and the attitude of the team. We think we have that switch we can turn on during games. We cannot play like that. We have to play consistently and we have to play as if we’re underdogs.) – Rappler.com