San Miguel still has championship hangover, says Santos after loss to Kia
San Miguel’s Arwind Santos shoots over Kia’s JR Cawaling. PBA Images/Nuki Sabio
MANILA, Philippines – San Miguel Beer didn’t look like its usual self when it made its debut in the 2015 PBA Commissioner’s Cup on Wednesday against expansion team Kia.
Two weeks after being crowned Philippine Cup champions, the Beermen got an early wake up call from the Carnival, who came into the game having lost 12 straight dating back to last conference.
Forward Arwind Santos admitted that the players haven’t moved on yet from their championship run last conference where it outlasted the Alaska Aces in a seven-game series.
“Oo naman. Hindi naman mapagkakaila na meron talaga (Of course. It’s quite obvious that we still have a hangover from last conference’s championship),” Santos said following an 88-78 loss to Kia.
“Aminado naman lahat kami na ang sama ng laro namin (We all know that we played really bad),” added Santos, who was the MVP of the Philippine Cup Finals.
Santos scored 14 points but shot just 7-of-23 from the field including 0-of-10 from the three-point area where he was very effective last conference.
The Beermen as a whole missed 23 of their 24 attempts from long range and made only 37% of their shots from the field.
But despite the many areas of the game that didn’t go in San Miguel’s favor, Santos opted to look into the bright side.
“Titignan na lang namin yung magandang bagay, na umpisa pa lang ng conference (we’ll look at what’s good about it, that it’s only the start of the conference).”
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