DALPH Panopio typified the growth that needs to happen for this young Blackwater team to become consistent and turn competitive in the PBA 50th Season Philippine Cup.
The No. 3 overall pick in this year’s rookie draft continued to show flashes of his potential on Wednesday when he put up the best-scoring performance of his young career in the Bossing’s 97-86 loss to Titan Ultra at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Coming into the game averaging 7.8 points, Panopio scored 15 points, including six in the second quarter that ended with the Bossing up by five points before letting the Giant Risers turn the game around in the second half.
READ: Titan Ultra finally fixes defensive hole to smother Blackwater
But the Filipino-Italian playmaker sees plenty to improve on after making just six of his 15 attempts from the field and committing four turnovers in 32 minutes as a starter as the Bossing suffered their fourth straight loss after starting the conference with a win.
“I need to be more confident in my shot. Work on my shot selection a little bit more,” Panopio said as he came in with an 11-of-37 clip for a sub-par 29.8-percent shooting from the field in his first four games.
“I had three bad turnovers today,” he added. “And I feel like that can happen. But at the same time, I'm trying to keep my teammates positive throughout the game. Keep talking, being active on defense.”
“I just have to be positive and keep talking,” the former Batang Gilas point guard continued.
“Keep bringing the energy up. Be accountable for everybody. Bring always something positive. I feel like my last turnover just kind of put us down and closed the game.”
“I feel like that can’t happen. I feel like I'm just going to learn from it. Try not to make it happen again.”
However, Panopio, who came two rebounds shy of a double-double, while stuffing the stat sheet with three assists, three steals, and two blocks, is sticking to the positives and is quick to move from another loss.
“I think it's just like the players trying to find their rhythm,” the 25-year-old guard said. “We honestly are a really young team. And I think we just... I don't want to say the chemistry because the chemistry is there. Everybody is super. But I think there's like those small stuff that we have to fix.”
“Nobody's blaming anybody. Everybody is open-minded and ready to... Everybody wants to win. But it's just not happening because... For now, other teams are playing better than us.”
“But I think we're on the right path right now. And it showed on the first three quarters. We didn’t just finish right,” he added.
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