Barako Bull’s Dollard frustrated but hopeful despite losses
Barako Bull’s Josh Dollard evades San Miguel’s Kevin Jones. Photo from Nuki Sabio
MANILA, Philippines — Joshua Dollard scored over 40 points for the third time Saturday but it still couldn’t keep Barako Bull from losing its fourth game.
And the hard-to-stop import admitted the frustration is mounting as the losses keep piling.
“It’s frustrating,” said Dollard after his 46-point outburst still wasn’t enough to lift the Energy over the San Miguel Beermen, 100-106. “But it’s regardless of whether you scored a lot or you scored little.”
Dollard owns the three highest scoring outputs in this 2014 PBA Commissioner’s Cup having previously scored 45 and 44 points.
His 45-point effort though, also went for naught with Barako Bull losing to Barangay Ginebra in overtime while his other 40-point game propelled the Energy to their only win so far at the expense of Rain or Shine in a tight one.
As much of a deadly scorer Dollard is, he’d rather trade all those sterling shooting performances for a win.
“I’d rather score four points and get a win than score 40 and get an L (loss),” said Dollard. “Because at the end of the night, it’s the win [that counts]. For my teammates and I we really want to win and that’s why they brought me here to win.”
“It’s heartbreaking when you give a lot of effort to the game and you come out at the losing end regardless of how much points you scored or how many rebounds you got since our objective is to win the game,” added Dollard, who leads the league in scoring averaging 36 points per game.
Dollard rued his team’s effort at the rebounding department and sloppiness with the ball apart from their execution on both ends of the floor that had got the Energy losing four of their first five games.
“We got to stop giving up offensive rebounds, cut down on the turnovers and execute our offense to a T and execute our defensive rotations because that’s what’s costing us close games,” he said.
The Energy got out-rebounded, 52-36, with the Beermen getting 22 offensive rebounds that netted them 27 second chance points.
Three of Barako Bull’s losses were just six points or less with only the Air21 Express able to beat the Energy convincingly in a game where the 27-year-old Dollard was held to just 12 points.
“I don’t know if we’re relaxing or lack of attention to detail and we calm down at the defensive end and give up big plays and points like that in a game against a good team like that you got to be on your game. I think we just got to tighten up on a few things and we’ll be okay,” said Dollard, who needed about “four to five” stitches to close a gash over his right eye after taking an elbow in the first half.
“We definitely got a lot of catching up to do but I think it’s possible. My team I think we’re going to continue fighting until it’s said and done.”
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