ANTIPOLO – The first win of Macau Black Knights in the PBA 50th Season Commissioner's Cup remained elusive on Tuesday.
The guest team lost to NLEX, 106-97, but played another competitive game where it led by as many as seven, 48-41, and was ahead, 78-74, at the end of the third quarter.
READ: NLEX stays hot as Bolick, Winston shut door on winless Macau
The Black Knights went down to their seventh straight defeat, a few days after they nearly pulled an upset over Meralco but the Bolts showed composure and experience to lose by five, 115-110.
“I think we played well,” said Macau coach Marcus Elliott. “I think we started out flat and emotionless. We got it together by the end of the first quarter.”
“Second quarter, we took the lead going into the half and came out in the third. It was unfortunate, we were in a penalty. We got six fouls called on us in less than two minutes. It's kind of hard to fight that, but still had a chance to win. We made some runs. We pretty much did a good job battling momentum switches," continued Elliott, who took over from Garrett Kelly after the third game of the conference.
Towards the end, we might have rushed a few possessions. But I trust the guys to make their own decisions. It just kinda fell to where it was."
After losing by an average margin of 12 points in the first five games, Macau has now chopped it down to seven over the past two games. Elliott said it is now a matter of closing out games.
“We are winning three quarters and we are losing one quarter every game except for two,” said the former ASEAN Basketball League import. “I think tonight as one of those games too. We lost the first quarter, won the second, won the third, and lost the fourth big.”
Elliott was referring to the 32-19 advantage that NLEX had in the fourth quarter.
Despite the struggles, the 41-year-old Elliott assured that the players will give their best in finally getting that win as the players are now getting used to the PBA style of play, and will def
“They're coming out to fight. Every game is a close game. Everybody knows that when you get us, if you win, it's going to be a fight. It's not going to be easy. We are trying to win,” Elliott said.
Macau's next attempt to snatch the victory will be against Titan Ultra on April 21 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
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