Kings offer no excuses after painful loss to Magnolia

Barangay Ginebra is not putting all the blame on a late non-call in the aftermath of its tough 93-91 loss to Magnolia last Sunday, Nov. 19.

After all, it wouldn’t have reached that point if not for a huge 26-point meltdown that allowed the Hotshots to come away with the victory in the end.

That, according to Maverick Ahanmisi, was a bitter pill to swallow.

“We can go on and on with officiating or whatever, but we know we lost that game. We’re up 26 points, we have enough cushion, and we just didn’t focus,” said Ahanmisi whose late triples were not enough to try and save Ginebra some blushes.

The loss not only gave Ginebra its first taste of defeat but also spoiled Ahanmisi’s best performance in Kings uniform, finishing with 21 points and 11 rebounds.

“It shouldn’t have gotten to that point. Like I said we’re up by 26. And that was completely on us. We didn’t defend well in the second half and they started attacking us. We just collapsed,” said Ahanmisi.

While insisting that there should have been a foul on Mark Barroca during his drive attempt with 11.5 seconds left, Scottie Thompson was also not whining over the later non-call especially after the Kings failed to respond when they were already expecting the Hotshots to put on the pressure against them in the second half.

“Iba-iba yung tingin nila, so I think for me, foul para sa akin kasi nung nakita ko yung replay. Pero ayun nga, baka hindi clear lane sa referee. So iba iba yung nakikita. Badly, wala nang challenge,” said Thompson.

“Alam namin na talagang pe-pressure yung Magnolia sa second half, bad thing na talagang nakabalik sila. But I think we can all learn from this and that’s it. PBA, talagang lahat ng teams very tough so kailangan maging ready sa lahat ng teams every game,” he added.