PUREFOODS STAR DEFENSE OFF TO GOOD START
Aching to defend its Governors’ Cup crown, Purefoods Star had a good debut on Saturday as Marqus Blakely anchored the Hotshots to an 89-85 win at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The former Best Import awardee was a rock for coach Tim Cone, doing it all for Purefoods Star with 29 points, 18 rebounds, seven steals, and five blocks.
Alex Mallari also showed up tonight, as he wound up with 15 points, including four pressure-packed free throws to end the game.
NLEX reinforcement Kwame Alexander, Mark Borboran, and Jonas Villanueva all drained three-pointers in the Road Warriors’ late fightback, but Mallari and Joe Devance were cool customers from the charity stripe, and Blakely finished the game off for the Hotshots with a rim-rocking flush as the time expired.
Despite the win, Cone wasn’t satisfied with what he saw in the end.
“I’m frustrated,” he said. “We’re not playing as well as we should be. Maybe we’ll warm up and get better as the conference goes along, but it’s still a struggle for our Big Three just to stay focused.”
Referring to the trio of James Yap, Marc Pingris and Peter June Simon, Cone continued his tirade, saying, “They played so much basketball and won so much that I feel that they’re getting kind of bored with the game already. It’s very difficult from a coaching standpoint to keep them focused and I can relate to them. I’ve been on Ping really hard to get him focused and get him going. It’s been a struggle.”
“I think the farther we get away from the Grand Slam, the hungrier we’ll turn to everybody and start really focusing and playing the way we feel we could play. I don’t think we’ve done that since the Grand Slam finish,” Cone said. “It gets to a point that it’s not ok anymore. We’ve got to pick it up emotionally, got to pick it up in terms of desire and hunger, and eventually, we’ll figure out a way to climb back to the top of the mountain. We seem so far from that mountain now. The other teams are just playing better than us and hungrier than us. At some point, we’re gonna start to question ourselves and we’re not doing that yet.”
Still, Cone is upbeat that Purefoods Star’s leaders will wake up sometime soon.
“This team knows what it’s about, they know what it takes. They just got to figure out that way and do it, and it’s gonna be led by that Big Three, by James, Ping and PJ. We’ll go as far as those three will take us,” he said.
Alexander bounced back from a so-so first game for NLEX as he poured in 25 points and hauled down 26 rebounds.
Jonas Villanueva also had 14 in the loss, as the Road Warriors dropped to 0-2. (RL)
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