Shooting woes continue to mount for Beermen

Alex Cabagnot. PBA Images/Nuki Sabio

MANILA, Philippines — Championship hangover?

San Miguel guard Alex Cabagnot doesn’t think that’s the case for the slumping Beermen, who staggered to their third consecutive loss on Wednesday to start the 2015 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.

“No,” Cabagnot quickly replied when asked if San Miguel still hasn’t removed itself from its championship run in the Philippine Cup three weeks ago. “We just lost this game. We’re 0-3 and we don’t want to blame anything, make any excuses. We got to look into ourselves first.”

Cabagnot, though, couldn’t tell what exactly it is that’s been keeping the Beermen from winning this conference after finishing as the top seed in the PH Cup with an impressive 9-2 record in the elimination round.

He said the phrase “the ball didn’t bounced that way today” thrice and in an answer to a reporter’s question during a four-minute and 27-second interview after an 80-77 loss to Blackwater.

And true enough, the Beermen have been abysmal in trying to get “the ball bounce” into the hoop in their first three outings. They shot a similar 37% from the field in losses to Kia and Barangay Ginebra and much worse against Blackwater, a team that hasn’t beaten anybody in 14 games spanning two conferences until Wednesday, at just 30%.

Cabagnot shot just 1-of-7 from the field, reigning MVP June Mar Fajardo went 2-of-9 in just 18 minutes, Philippine Cup Finals MVP Arwind Santos went 4-of-18 and Marcio Lassiter missed 10 out of his 12 attempts. Chris Lutz was the only Beermen who made half of his attempts on Wednesday. He went 6-of-12.

Import Ronald Roberts Jr. led SMB with 18 points, 17 rebounds and two blocks.

“He’s been doing his part,” Cabagnot said of Roberts.

Sitting at the bottom of the standings is still not enough reason for Cabagnot to say that the team is in panic mode, but the team certainly has that sense of urgency to win.

“More like a sense of urgency. We had that today when we lost to Kia,” said Cabagnot, who described the mood in the losing locker room as “wasn’t as happy or joyful.”

“We don’t want to lose and we don’t want to be the laughingstock of the PBA after where we just came from,” he added. “It’s more of like everybody was thinking, reflecting on how personally, you can help the team. That’s more of what we’ve been doing.”