By REYNALD MAGALLON
Magnolia has refused to get too carried away by its quarterfinals win over TNT, a victory that allowed the Hotshots to inch closer to a possible return trip to the finals and a shot at long-coveted PBA title.
While the Hotshots were glad that they made quick work of the Tropang Giga, 109-94, to reach the semifinals, head coach Chito Victolero was quick to remind his charges that they are still far from where they want to be.
“Masaya kahit paaano nakaisa din kami. We always face TNT in the finals or in the semis at least right now, medyo vindicated kami medyo masarap pakiramdam but again this only the quarters, we always want to go deep into the playoffs,” said Victolero.
“Masaya kami pero hindi pa kami nasa-satisfied pa. We’ll work hard for the next series,” he added.
Victolero’s statements were very much understandable considering the Hotshots’ status as perennial contenders in every conference. In fact, the team had reached the semifinals in four of the league’s last five conferences although falling short of its goal of finally winning a title which it last achieved in 2018.
For the Hotshots, it’s already high time for them to finally get over the hump and win it all. Victolero is hopeful that they can pull it off this conference behind import Tyler Bey and a veteran-laden crew that featured Paul Lee, Calvin Abueva, Mark Barroca, Ian Sangalang and Jio Jalalon.
Magnolia now only awaits its semis opponent which will be the winner of the sudden death clash between Phoenix and Meralco on Sunday.
“We’re always here, every conference. We are consistently here. We talked about it. We go to the finals, we go to the semis but hopefully this time we go all the way but again it’s very hard,” said the one-time champion coach.
“Sabi nga namin wala pa kaming naachieve dito eh. We just got to the 50 percent (of our goal. We got to playoffs that’s another 25 percent, now we go to the semis, the target is the other 25 percent again going to the finals,” he added.
Although keeping their eyes on the big prize, Victolero also preached to his players to not look too far ahead in the future and focus on the series at hand.
