‘Learned’ FiberXers try to get job done this time

Justine Baltazar (right) is a vital Converge cog. —AUGUST DELA CRUZ

A door toward a PBA title has opened up again for a young Converge crew, and interim coach Franco Atienza hopes they now have the experience to go with new, reliable tools to finally turn the knob and go through it.

The FiberXers, who dragged mighty San Miguel to a deciding Game 5 in the quarterfinals of the previous tournament, enter the quarterfinals of the Commissioner’s Cup as the No. 3 seed and will play sixth-ranked Rain or Shine in a race-to-two series that gets going this week.

“Sure, there’s been marked improvement. And of course, we’re happy,” Atienza told the Inquirer on Sunday. “But you know, our goals, we cut them in chunks. Eliminations, then qualifying for the Top 8, and then shooting for that twice-to-beat.

“Now comes the next challenge.”

Converge went 8-4 in the eliminations after midseason pickups Jordan Heading and rookie Justine Baltazar came around. But all that hardly matters now, according to Atienza.

“It’s a whole new ballgame since PBA teams tend to change at this point,” he explained. “They become an entirely different animal when it comes to the playoffs. Especially Rain or Shine.

“At one point, they were the team to beat. They were No. 1,” Atienza said. “They may not have finished the way they wanted to—strong—and their record doesn’t speak of how really good of a team they are. For sure, we will be in a tough battle with them.”

A toughened side

Against a dangerous, well-constructed and well-coached team also looking to go deep, Atienza hopes that the lessons they’ve picked up during that series against the Beermen a few months back would come in handy.

“The pressure you deal with in a game in the playoffs is different. You make one tiny mistake and you feel the weight of it—and that’s something you cannot simulate in practice,” he said. “You can simulate plays and schemes. But nerves? Pressure? You gain that by going through tough moments—and we went through [those] during the San Miguel games.”

Converge staved off elimination twice against the Beermen during that quarterfinal series and was actually just a couple of possessions away from dismantling a powerhouse that many felt would just breeze past them.

There were a lot of lessons—though painful ones—learned there.

And now, with the FiberXers much more equipped, it’s those tough times against the Beermen that make Atienza hopeful this time around. INQ