MANILA, Philippines —Jeric Teng emerged as the best scorer with the first week of the 2013 PBA D-League Foundation Cup gone by — but it’s no reason to celebrate.
Even with his stellar offensive showing, Informatics is staring at a 0-2 hole early in the conference — and for the Santo Tomas gunner, it’s all about mental toughness.
“If you start strong, you got [to] finish stronger. [We need] mental toughness,” said Teng on his Twitter account after the Icons’ 77-84 loss to Cafe France last Tuesday.
It was a second straight overtime loss for Informatics, which also lost the lead in the fourth quarter then yielded to Boracay Rum in OT, 85-93, last week.
The Icons, though, definitely do not have a lack of scoring options to Nate Matute and Mon Rogado on the wing to back up their able big men.
But Teng, who has been averaging 21 points per game, knows what they have been doing wrong: “[We] can’t always collapse at the end.”
And while there’s no more questioning his capabilities in pouring in the points, Teng is nowhere near satisfied with his performance.
Teng has missed all but three of his 13 attempts from downtown in two games, and is 11-of-29 from under the arc.
“I’ve been missing a lot of open shots, especially from the three. And we have two losses. [I] got to work harder,” Teng said.
Informatics faces last conference’s finalist Cagayan on Monday, which should serve as another tough test.