EXPERIENCING a “resurrection” of late in the PBA Philippine Cup, the Mahindra Floodbuster are out to build on their winning streak, eyeing a third straight victory in their showdown with the TNT KaTropa today at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City.
Victorious in their last two assignments after starting the season-opening Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) conference with five straight defeats, the Floodbuster (2-5) look to continue with their seeming tournament turnaround in their 4:15 p.m. encounter against the skidding KaTropa (4-4).
Now on the winning track, Mahindra credits it to the jacked-up training commitment it has been putting in.
“Of late we have adopted to an uptempo game, getting quick threes and going to early transition. Our level of shooting has kicked up and our guys are really buying in to our jacked-up training and this is the result,” said Mahindra coach Chris Gavina following their latest win over the Meralco Bolts, 105-92, last week.
The win was in follow up to its 97-92 overtime win over the Blackwater Elite on Christmas Day that halted their streak of futility in the Philippine Cup.
Against Meralco on Jan. 11, Mahindra banked on its hot shooting to frustrate its opponent.
As a team, the Floodbuster shot 51% from the field, going 40-of-78, and hit 21 of its 47 triples for a 45% shooting clip.
Guard Philip Paniamogan led six Mahindra players in double digits with 25 points, going seven-of-nine from beyond the arc.
Nico Salva, Alex Mallari and Jason Deutchmann had 13 points each while Michael Digregorio and Russell Escoto had 11 and 10 points, respectively.
However, apart from finally taking flight in the ongoing PBA tournament, Mr. Gavina said their victories of late would go a long way as far rebuilding their foundation following the myriad of movements that had happened within the team.
“There have been so many movements happening in our team. To have our first winning streak of the season is helping build our foundation. It’s making the guys realize that we won’t win by talent alone as we don’t have enough to match every team. But if we put in the hard work we think we have a chance,” the Mahindra coach said.
“We will just take it one game at a time from here on. We’ll try to keep the guys level-headed and emphasize to them the need to pay attention to details as it has been key for us in our last two games,” he added.
HALT SKID
Out to stop the Mahindra roll and infuse life back to its own campaign is TNT, which has lost back-to-back to fall in the middle pack heading into the windup.
The KaTropa last lost to the Star Hotshots, 88-77, on Sunday.
Despite the rough patch, TNT is still confident of regaining its groove and make a run at it down the stretch.
Leading the way for TNT is Jayson Castro with averages of 18.8 points and 5.8 assists while Ranidel De Ocampo has been good for 13.1 points and 6.3 rebounds.
Following the Mahindra-TNT encounter is the matchup between the Phoenix Petroleum Fuel Masters (4-4) and NLEX Road Warriors (2-6) at 7 p.m.
Meanwhile, Blackwater guard Roi Sumang was the latest recipient of the PBA player of the week honors after helping his team to a big win last Sunday over the Alaska Aces, 103-100.
Mr. Sumang stepped up in the second half, pouring 17 of his 19 points to tow his team to victory, their fifth in nine games and fortified their hold of a spot in the quarterfinals.
In winning the weekly plum, Mr. Sumang beat Mahindra’s Paniamogan, San Miguel Beermen’s June Mar Fajardo, GlobalPort Batang Pier’s Terrence Romeo, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings’ Joe Devance, Star’s Allein Maliksi and Ian Sangalang and Alaska’s Calvin Abueva.