THE decent outside touch coach Caloy Garcia saw in Shawn Taggart in practice has yet to manifest as the Rain or Shine import typified the team’s horrendous three-point shooting in their 89-83 loss to Meralco in their PBA Commissioner’s Cup matchup on Wednesday night.
Coming in the game missing all but one of his 10 three-point shots in his first three outings, the E-Painters import continued his struggles from beyond the arc as he hit just two of his nine three-point attempts against the Bolts.
“I’ve been struggling from the three-point line since I got here,” Taggart said. “I’ve been shooting shots in practice, so hopefully that will show in the game soon.”
His early woes were not as magnified as it was on Wednesday night as the E-Painters had been winning.
Still, the 6-foot-9 Taggart finished with a game-high 27 points, including a quick bucket off a timeout that nudged the E-Painters to within two points late in the game. He added 13 boards, one assist, and one block in 36 minutes.
“With Shawn, his stats are still there,” ROS coach Caloy Garcia said. “But I think he feels bad, he had wide-open shots, but he just made two-of-nine.
“He’s a really great shooter, but off night, it happens,” he added.
As a unit, the Elasto Painters made just four of their 32 three-point attempts for a woeful 13-percent clip that contributed to their 31-percent shooting from the field overall.
Meralco even had less attempts, making just two of their 13 treys, but it was their defense that propelled them to the win.
“We had our open looks,” Garcia said. “Like I said, we just missed open shots, some of them wide open. If we had made two or three more, we could have probably won the game. Siguro that’s the game plan of Meralco — make us take those kind of shots.
“On defense naman, may lapses kami,” he added. “Sinasabi ko naman palagi that there’s no such thing as perfect defense for four quarters. I like the players’ efforts in the second half and hopefully we can bring that to our next game.”