BARANGAY Ginebra had to go through the eye of the needle to eke this one out against San Miguel Beer.
LA Tenorio expects things to be even tougher the next time the two rival teams face off on the court again.
“Siguro doble nito. Siguro we’re expecting, double, triple overtime the next game,” said Tenorio on Sunday as while pondering on the Kings’ 87-83 grind-out win over the defending champion Beermen to move closer to capturing the PBA Commissioner’s Cup championship.
“Closing out the series especially against San Miguel is really hard. We’re not expecting a blowout game again for sure especially with their backs are against the wall,” said the veteran guard. “Alam naman natin ang San Miguel magaling din sa ganyan. We have a never-say-die spirit, meron din ganung attitude ang San Miguel.”
Despite going 6-of-16 from the field, Tenorio still finished with 15 points and five assists, while playing steady manning the backcourt for Ginebra. His split free throw in the final 2.9 seconds helped seal Game Five for the team and a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven finals played in front of a crowd of 16,958 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Tenorio said he was proud of what the Kings did especially in the stretch run when they battled their way back from a 78-83 deficit in the final 3:16 of the tightly-fought match.
Ginebra went on a 9-0 run after that to complete the comeback win.
“Ang hirap,” said Tenorio. “The good thing about this is we came out really composed during the endgame. And yun naman ang parati naming pini-preach talaga. Every playoff game, we only need a one-point win. Di baleng pangit ang laro as long na manalo kami, we’ll take it.”
Given the chance, the 34-year-old Tenorio said Ginebra should take with it a win-at-all cost attitude come Game 6 on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“Yung mindset namin going to the game on Wednesday is do-or-die for us. We cannot give them a chance na maglaro for a Game 7 dahil mahirap kalabanin ang san Miguel,” he said.
“If we have a chance to finish it on Wednesday, we have to do it.”
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
