JAKARTA – Stanley Pringle lived up to expectations with fine performance on Thursday during his first game in the Asian Games.
Pringle had 18 points, going 6 for 9 from the field, as the Philippine squad defeated Kazakhstan to start off the campaign on a high note.
Pringle’s play back home had earned praises from Baldwin, who said Pringle is the best guard in Asia.
But the Globalport star played down that label by the former Gilas coach and now Ateneo Blue Eagles mentor.
“I have nothing but respect for him, but I’m always playing to be the best player I want to be,” said Pringle. “I don’t want to come after any title or anything. I just want to be the best guard I can be, work to improve, adjust, and correct my mistakes and be a team player.
Pringle had nine points in the first half as the Philippines took a 41-20 advantage. He deflected credit to the entire squad for their play against Kazakhstan.
“It was great, man. We all played a hard team game. We all played together. What coach Yeng wants is to play together. He wants us to gel on and off the court. We’ve been doing that the whole time. We just put that together, come out there on the court, and execute,” said the 31-year-old Pringle.
Pringle, however, said he still has a lot to improve in international play, particularly the Asian Games.
Got to get used to the ball. The ball slipped on my hand about three times but other than that, just tweak the offense a little bit, know when to attack and when to pull it out, run different sets on the ball screen,” said Pringle.
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