ALEX Cabagnot faced San Miguel on Thursday for the first time in the playoffs, the stage of the season where his former team is known to thrive.
The Converge guard saw action for 17 minutes and 54 seconds, finishing with three points and three rebounds in Game One of the PBA 49th Season Governors’ Cup quarterfinals.
The FiberXers lost the match, 102-95.
READ: San Miguel weathers late Converge storm to win Game 1
Despite the loss, the 41-year-old Cabagnot likes his current team’s chances of making the series a competitive one.
“You’ve got to play them somewhere down the line,” he said. “It’s a lot easier to beat them three times than four. It plays in our favor. But it’s still hard. They are still a great team.”
“We are going to go back to the drawing board. It was a close game. Hopefully, we could make some adjustments on Saturday.”
Friendly fire
That competitive fire was visible for Cabagnot with things even getting chippy at the 1:03 mark of the first quarter between him and Terrence Romeo, with the latter eventually slapped with a technical foul for the minor skirmish.
“Saan na ‘yun? Eto talagang si Terrence, nakaltukan pa ako,” said Cabagnot in jest.
“It was a heat of the moment. After I shot the free throw, I totally forgot about. And still, kinulit ko pa rin siya. I don’t know what it was. Actually, I don’t know,” he said.
Cabagnot said it was not a big deal, as it was part of being a competitor just like Romeo is.
“Na-shock din ako. Tumingin ako sa bench and they were all laughing. I was laughing too. Terrence is a competitor, and I’m a competitor too. Even though we have some history together being on the same team and winning championships, we also want to compete. To me, it was nothing,” he said.
The score may have been close on paper, but Cabagnot said there is still much work to do, especially after the FiberXers fell behind, 97-81, in the final four minutes of the match.
“I think we are going to look at the fact that close lang going into the third quarter, and then lumamang sila. You know San Miguel, it’s hard to try to outbattle with them. We are going to look at the adjustments on what they need, how our rotations were,” he said.
“I know it’s a morale victory, that catching up. But we have to look at the fact that when they had a little run and we responded as well. We need to respond better,” he added.
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