Fajardo confident San Miguel can bounce back in PBA finals

MANILA, Philippines — San Miguel was on the receiving end of a brutal 109-96 beating at the hands of TNT in Game 1 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals, but five-time MVP June Mar Fajardo didn’t worry too much after the defeat.

Fajardo said that it’s only the first game of the series and they have plenty of time to turn things around, as long as they stick to their game plan and hit their shots.

“This is a long series, we’ll bounce back, we just have to be positive about this,” said Fajardo in Filipino Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum. “We just have to execute our plays.”

“We can recover from this, this is only Game 1 and things aren’t over yet.”

The Beermen were subjected to a vicious 20-0 KaTropa run across the first two quarters as TNT took a 37-19 lead and essentially the whole match itself.

TNT had a discreet advantage in rebounding, 47-43 overall and 18-14 in the offensive glass, but those numbers shouldn’t be taken in face value.

The KaTropa muscled and weaved their way to 26 second-chance points to complement their 13-of-38 shooting from three-point distance.

San Miguel also failed to counter TNT’s torrid shooting converting just five of its 24 attempts from beyond the arc.

“They had a bunch of offensive rebounds and I know we have to fix that tomorrow in practice,” said Fajardo. who had 23 points and five rebounds.

/atm