Racela sees positives in close loss to SMB

Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

ANTIPOLO — TNT head coach Nash Racela could’ve easily dwelled on the fact that the KaTropa muffed a golden opportunity to keep their bid for a twice-to-beat advantage going after a loss to the San Miguel Beermen Saturday night.

Racela, though, opted to see the game differently.

“Good thing about this is that we gave ourselves a really good chance in the endgame,” Racela told reporters after TNT’s 98-94 defeat at Ynares Center here. “I think we need to do a better job next time closing out games. What we told the players was to focus on the positives we can take from this game.”

“Clearly, at least basing it on the game today, we could go toe-to-toe with San Miguel which is really good for us. Guys are slowly starting to understand their roles and the way we do things here,” he said.

TNT nearly pulled off the upset against the No. 1 team in the league which is on an eight-game roll,

The KaTropa even took a 94-90 lead with only three minutes left despite falling behind by 10 late in the third quarter and eight in the early final frame.

But a questionable traveling violation called against TNT forward Kelly Williams, whose potential go-ahead basket with 43 seconds left was waived off due to the controversial infraction, followed by a clutch 3-pointer by San Miguel guard Alex Cabagnot sealed the KaTropa’s fate.

“I don’t know,” said Racela when asked about the call. “That was actually a good move by Kelly against June Mar.”

Racela, though, saw the huge free throw disparity as a big factor to why his team lost.

“But I think the really big difference in the game was we gave them 27 free throws. That’s really crucial. We only had 10 free throws the whole game so it was really tough for us,” he said.

“If you look at the game stats, almost all departments were even with San Miguel except for the free throw attempts. We’ve talked about it before, something that we can really improve on is lessening fouls.”

TNT ended its campaign in the elimination round with a 6-5 record but will have to wait until the final day of the eliminations before it could determine its quarterfinals opponent.