READ: Petro Gazz outlasts Creamline in five-set Sta. Rosa thriller
Despite the setback, there are positives to glean for the defending champions. One of the three fresh faces in the Cool Smashers lineup, Bea de Leon , showcased her best performance to date, tallying 13 points and leading the game with six kill blocks. Prior to her 13-piece, she averaged four points in five games played.
While these statistics highlight de Leon's rapid development in her eight matches with Creamline, her primary focus remains on team success rather than personal achievements.
“Me? Oh, I didn’t know (best scoring game for Creamline). Sana nanalo na lang kami,” de Leon said.
“I think naman we gave it everything that we could. Talagang naunahan talaga kami ng Petro Gazz. They played very well and hindi namin sila napigilan especially towards the back end. But ‘yun, talo kami. A loss is a loss,” she added.
In what is shaping up to be a six-way logjam in the semifinals race with Creamline sharing second place with Petro Gazz for the time being at 6-2 (win-loss), de Leon believes now’s the time to go full throttle and dodge slow starts in order to quickly bounce back.
“Na-mention nga nila coach kanina is slow starts. Talagang mahirap, hindi talaga laging makahabol kaagad kapag ganun kalaki rin ‘yung deficit and ganun ka-crucial.
“Siguro that’s one (area for improvement), but for now parang everything’s still a blur so we’re still gonna try and go back talaga to the drawing table. Hirap ng nangyari sa’min but you know, we’ll give it a day of course. And the most important part is makabawi kami,” de Leon said.
It may not be the desired result for the dominant ‘pink army’ among the 6,149-strong Sta. Rosa crowd on Saturday but for de Leon, their unwavering support never goes unnoticed.
“Those were really big bright spots for us na ‘pag naririnig namin silang nag-cheer lalo na sa ganito ka-compressed na arena, sobrang rinig na rinig namin sila. Actually, kami sa loob ng court, nagsisigawan kami kasi nga sobrang loud ng crowd which is good for us, for everybody and the game,” said de Leon.
“Sobrang thankful talaga namin sa crowd sa araw-araw naming paglalaro.”
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