PHOENIX coach Ariel Vanguadia implied that his team underestimated Star in their matchup, resulting in a 123-79 blowout loss to the Hotshots in the PBA Philippine Cup on Saturday night.
Unlike in their seven-point upset win over defending champion San Miguel Beer two games ago, the Fuel Masters entered the game against the Hotshots with a different mentality.
“We didn’t have the same mindset nung kalaban namin yung San Miguel,” Vanguardia said. “Itong Star, elite team, malalim line-up, anybody can score, anybody can kill us, at yung mindset, yung sense of urgency, hindi pareho nung kalaban ng San Miguel so yun yung nangyari.”
The Fuel Masters started out cold from the get go, as they failed to get anything going from halfway through the first as they fell into 15-point hole that grew deeper to as many as 53 points in the fourth quarter.
Simon Enciso, JC Intal, Willy Wilson, and Matthew Wright did score in double figures, but most of their production came when the game was already out of hand.
While taking “full responsibility” for the loss – their second in four games - Vanguardia appeared to call out the entire squad for producing an embarrassing performance that led to arguably their worst loss in their young history.
“Di ko alam kung sinong team yung naglaro doon kanina,” Vanguardia said. “We should be ashamed of ourselves, we should be ashamed to our families, to those that support us. We didn’t give justice of wearing this uniform tonight. Everybody is totally disappointed.”
“But we're gonna rise from this debacle and come out a better team next game,” he was quick to add.
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