TONY Bishop acknowledged fault after being a letdown in Meralco’s 94-80 loss to Magnolia in Game One of the PBA Governors’ Cup semifinals on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Tony Bishop on Game 1 loss
The Hotshots’ resolute defense took its toll on the Bolts import, who was limited to 10 points after missing all but five of his 19 shots – and all his six three-point attempts – in almost 41 minutes of play.
Bishop averaged 28.4 points on 49-percent shooting, and 2.5 three-point conversions in the eliminations.
“I take all the blame for this,” Bishop said. “I was supposed to be coming here, score the basketball, and help my team win basketball games. And today, I didn't do that. I knew they're gonna come out with that kind of aggressiveness and defense. It wasn't surprising but they did a good job today.”
Chris Banchero and Bong Quinto carried most of the offensive load for Meralco as Bishop scored only two points in the first half where the Bolts built their biggest lead at 17.
Bishop, who was a -23 in the plus/minus department, gave credit to the Hotshots’ defense that forced him to commit a game-high five turnovers.
“They're a well-rounded team,” Bishop said. “They're very aggressive on the defensive end. They do a lot of trapping, they do a lot of digging in when you dribble the basketball. They made it tough on me tonight.”
“I think they're the most aggressive defensive team in the league,” he added.
Bishop vowed to play better in Game Two on Friday, but won’t force the issue.
“I’m going to let the game come to me,” he said. “Tonight, it didn't come as planned. If I score 30, cool, and we win. That's all that matters to me. I really wanna win the game. If I would've scored 10 like I did tonight and we would've won, that would've been perfect.”
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