BETTER now than later.
Antonio Hester took his first loss with Magnolia in the PBA Governors’ Cup in stride, stressing it’s more of a lesson learned for the Hotshots in the aftermath of their close 86-84 setback against the Meralco Bolts Sunday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Antonio Hester on loss to Meralco
The burly import said he wasn’t disappointed at all despite the loss being his first with the Hotshots after winning his first four games with them.
“I’d rather take a loss now than in the playoffs. I’d rather learn to lose now than not to lose at all, get into the playoffs and something happens, and then everybody’s pointing fingers. So it’s good,” said Hester afterwards.
The Magnolia reinforcement had 23 points including 15 in the third quarter when the team enjoyed a lead of as much as 61-49.
But there was no quit on Meralco as import KJ McDaniels teamed up with Bong Quinto and Chris Newsome in the final quarter where the Bolts outscored the Hotshots, 23-13, to pull off the comeback win.
McDaniels sank two pressure-packed free throws off a Hester foul in the final 31 seconds as Meralco took a close two-point lead which it preserved till the end.
Hester owed the mistake of committing the foul against McDaniels and the outcome of the game on the line.
“That was a big mess up on my behalf. There’s a lot of things we messed up on, but as an import, I have to take that and understand that I cannot make those mistakes moving forward,” he said.
The Hotshots lost for the first time in five outings and fell to an even 4-4 card, with four more games left in their elimination round assignment.
Hester said the focus is on playing better in the coming games for a shot at making the playoffs.
“Live and learn is good and to take a loss sometimes. It’s not really a loss, it’s a lesson,” said the import. “Definitely we learned our lessons tonight and we’ll move forward from there.”
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