Tenorio seeks redemption as Kings eye Finals berth

LA Tenorio (photo above): I can’t be too eager in redeeming myself. —PBA IMAGES

LA Tenorio has promised to redeem himself and take Barangay Ginebra along for the ride.

Chris Newsome wants Meralco to stay humble and save the celebrations for later when the Bolts get half the job done—and that is return to the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals.

With Tenorio and the Gin Kings taking their second shot at closing out NLEX, and the Bolts the first of two they have in seeing off No. 1 Magnolia, places in a familiar territory await Ginebra and Meralco as the Final Four resumes on Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City.

Ginebra takes the floor first at 3 p.m. before the Bolts and the Hotshots clash in the 6 p.m. game, as the Kings try to bounce back from a bungled sweep chance when they allowed the Road Warriors to escape with an 86-85 win on Sunday.

It was a loss that Tenorio said was “on me,” after he made an ill error in judgment when he went for a layup instead of a three-pointer that could have forged overtime.

“It’s not going to be easy for me to let this incident go. But as one of the vets in the team, I’ll have to deal with this,” Tenorio said after Game 3 when the Road Warriors closed in, 2-1, in the best-of-five series. “I have to battle [through it]. I have to fight through it … most especially on Wednesday.

“And on Wednesday [in Game 4], I can’t be too eager at redeeming myself. I really have to battle.”

Tough act

Newsome, meanwhile, is saying that he and the Bolts are relishing the fact that they are leading the Hotshots for the first time, their two straight victories in this series have come after two consecutive losses where they muffed formidable leads to lose narrowly.

But closing out Magnolia would be a tough act, because the Hotshots also have the hunger that they do.

“We know they’re gonna be hungry, that they’ve got their own stuff going on as well,” Newsome, a former Rookie of the Year, said after Sunday’s 101-95 Game 3 win. “But at the end of the day, we just gotta go out there and play. And I think right now, we gotta stay humble, we gotta stay hungry and most importantly focused and disciplined with our game plan and what else coach Norman [Black] wants us doing out there.”

Ginebra and Meralco have had great title series clashes in this conference in the very recent past with the Kings coming out on top each time.

Those Finals appearances that Meralco had were led by the indefatigable Allen Durham, a brute import who bamboozled his way through defenses. The Bolts are being led by Tony Bishop Jr. this time and have been as formidable even with a reinforcement playing with a much different style. INQ