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Marinerong Pilipino may have gotten away with the 92-78 victory over Batangas-EAC to snap its two-game losing slide, but Gab Banal felt no relief owing to how bad his team performed on Thursday in the 2018 PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup.
“Actually, it feels like a loss,” he said. “We didn’t go hard in the third quarter like what we did in the first half. We had a strong start, but we had a bad third quarter.”
The Skippers saw their 21-point lead, 36-15, dissipate to just three, 52-49, midway in the third frame behind the furious rally led by Generals swingman Jeric Diego.
Though Marinerong Pilipino recovered in the fourth period behind Rian Ayonayon’s outburst, Banal felt that the game still left a lot to be desired for his team in terms of its cohesiveness.
“You can see that we’re not familiar with each other. All of the teams that we’re playing against are school-based, so they’ve been together for a long time. That’s not an excuse for us, but rather, a challenge,” said Banal, who finished with a team-high 17 points, nine rebounds, and four steals in the victory.
The 27-year-old does acknowledge the Skippers’ strength on paper as they boasts of one of the most potent collection of talents this conference. But he knows that blending those individual brilliance together is another story.
“Individually, you can see that we have big names like Abu Tratter and Alvin Pasaol. Billy Robles has already been in the PBA. Ayonayon is a pure scorer. But the challenge for us right now is how fast we become a team,” he said.
“What’s important right now is for us to be a team and jell as a team. We can’t do it as individuals. The faster we become a team, the more chances of us winning.”
Marinerong Pilipino aims to make it back-to-back wins next Thursday when it tests Wangs Basketball-Letran.