Meralco Bolts’ Cliff Hodge in Game 2 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals against San Miguel Beermen. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—It’s just one game. At least that’s how Meralco wants to look at the Game 2 heartbreak to San Miguel in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals.
The Bolts fumbled their chance for a momentous 2-0 lead after a last-second shot by Marcio Lassiter, absorbing a stinging 95-94 loss to San Miguel on Wednesday.
But despite the heartbreaking loss, Cliff Hodge kept a positive mentality as they get a chance to rebound not 48 hours later for Game 3.
READ: PBA Finals: San Miguel survives Meralco in thriller to tie series at 1-1
“Honestly, it’s just one game. We should’ve won that but that’s a championship team. They came out and made the big plays when they needed to. I’m pretty confident with the way that we’re playing right now,” said Hodge, who had his 25-point, nine-rebound stat line wasted.
“It’s going to be a long series. We’ll forget about this loss and now that we all came out and played hard, we’ll be ready for Sunday.”
Even coach Luigi Trillo doubled down on the “it’s just one game” mindset.
Meralco Bolts coach Luigi Trillo in Game 2 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals against San Miguel Beermen. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
After all, Trillo never thought they would sweep a juggernaut team like the Beermen’s despite drawing first blood in the best-of-seven series.
Instead, the one-time PBA champion coach focused on how Meralco has been making San Miguel look like a beatable team.
“I look at it as we’re not going to sweep San Miguel, right? So every game you want to bring your A game, you want to fight and have fewer breakdowns,” said Trillo.
READ: PBA Finals: Meralco still ‘absolutely’ has not cracked San Miguel code
“I thought we played good enough but we could’ve won this game and go up 2-0 but there’re really things like that. It’s really going to hurt,” he added.
Trillo also emphasized that the Bolts will heavily prepare for another war come Sunday.
“We’ll respond, we’ll do it on Sunday, we’ll watch the film and we’ll be clinical rather than be critical at this point to clean up our mistakes.”
Game 3 rolls on this Sunday at 6 pm, still at Smart Araneta Coliseum.