IT’S not the comeback LA Tenorio desired, but nonetheless, just being back on the court was like a breath of fresh air for the Barangay Ginebra team captain.
The 40-year-old guard suited up for the Kings in Game 2 of the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals against San Miguel, marking the first time he played since coaching the Gilas Youth team to the gold medal in the FIBA U-16 Asia Cup SEABA qualifiers.
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Tenorio saw action for close to eight minutes but ended up scoreless in a 100-83 loss to the Beermen that leveled their best-of-seven series at 1-1.
“It’s good to be back on the floor,” was how the veteran player describes his first game in the season-ending conference. “Hindi lang maganda siyempre, natalo kami.”
Tenorio appreciated the belief of coach Tim Cone, who inserted him in the game in the second quarter and then in the fourth period when only the final score was left unsettled.
“Malaking bagay yun. Ginawa ni coach Tim yun siguro for me to be ready because this is my first game in a long time,” he noted. “Hopefully yung laro kanina makakuha ng rhythm and mas maging ready for the next game.”
Asked if he felt uneasy, Tenorio answered in the negative.
“Not really. Same system naman yung tinatakbo namin. More or less, kahit mawala ako ng matagal alam ko pa rin ang mga dapat kong gawin,” he stressed. “It’s just a matter of yung rhythm lang na going back and forth and playing in a real game.”
Game 3 is set on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum and Tenorio hopes the Kings will play their usual game again after what he thought was their failure to respond to San Miguel’s effort to bounce back after losing the series opener.
“We expected that they (Beermen) will really come back stronger and we did not respond doon sa challenge na yun. Hopefully next game, best-of-five (na), we’ll get the first game again,” he said.
At the same time, Tenorio expects his Gilas Youth members to watch the game again as they did during the quarterfinals and in the opener of the Kings’ semis series.
“Baka Sunday (manood), kasi nakita nilang naglaro ako,” said the national youth coach.
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