By REYNALD MAGALLON
San Miguel Beer import Bennie Boatwright refused to dwell on his first taste of defeat ever since setting foot in the PBA.
The Beermen high-scoring reinforcement was undefeated for nine-straight games – a huge chunk of his team’s franchise record-tying 11-game win streak – not until falling to the hands of the Magnolia Hotshots in Game 3 of the Commissioner’s Cup Finals.
Having gone on an impressive run, Boatwright knew that at some point the streak would eventually end.
“You’re gonna lose. That’s part of life. Sometimes you win some, you lose some but there’s no need to overreact. We just got to be ready for Game 4,” said Boatwright.
The SMB import still got his usual numbers in the loss with 27 points and 13 rebounds but he was obviously bothered by the defense of Magnolia with fellow import Tyler Bey and local stars Calvin Abueva and Ian Sangalang taking turns shadowing him.
“That’s a good team we play so we expected them to come out and play well today and credit to them they got the win,” said Boatwright who stressed that he’s taking every game pretty much the same whether they’re coming off a win or a defeat.
“I don’t really try to think about it like that. Whether we win a game, we lose a game stay in the same metal space,” he added
As a result, Boatwight didn’t have the best shooting night after going 9-of–29 from the field. The sweet-shooting big man refused to make a big deal out of it saying that the Beermen just need to make adjustments and put their scorers in better position next time around.
“Let’s see what we can expose, defensively for them and offensively. It’s gonna get better,” said Boatwright.
“That’s a good team we play so we expected them to come out and play well today and credit to them they got the win. They played well today. They’re a good defensive team,” he added.
