CHRISTIAN Standhardinger led the second group in helping San Miguel pull away from Magnolia in Game Six of the PBA Philippine Cup finals.
Standhardinger had 16 points off the bench in the Beermen’s 98-86 Game Six win over the Hotshots on Sunday, and head coach Leo Austria paid tribute to the second stringers for building San Miguel’s lead in the first half.
“We played good defense because of our second group,” Austria said. “’Yung second group, nahawa na lahat sa kanila. Medyo nagkaroon kami ng baon papunta sa second half. Second half, nagkaroon ng run ‘yung kalaban namin pero ‘yung composure namin nandoon.”
The Fil-German was quick to move on from his splendid play as he looks forward to Game Seven on Wednesday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
“Just trying to play hard. I’m very happy with the victory but nothing is done. I don’t care what happened in history. We just need to focus and play our best next game,” Standhardinger said.
The San Miguel sophomore hailed the entire SMB squad for stepping up in the elimination game.
“A lot of pressure but you can’t think about that. I’m thinking about I’m letting it all out and my teammates did the same. I think that’s why we were victorious today. We just have to make sure that we go all out,” said Standhardinger.
Standhardinger expects an even tougher Magnolia to shw up in the decider.
“Magnolia is a tremendous team. Great coaching. What the coach does is try to counter what we do and it has been that way that why they got so many victories.”
“We just have to keep our intensity up and try to use our intensity to counter their intensity and their great coaching. I have much respect to the coaches of Magnolia. It’s amazing what they’ve been doing in this series. Everybody who understand basketball knows what a great job they do,” said Standhardinger.
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