Arvin Tolentino hopes NorthPort can still solve Ginebra puzzle despite going down 0-3

For Arvin Tolentino, NorthPort's semifinals appearance in the ongoing PBA Season 49 Commissioner's Cup — their first time in six years — is already an overachievement.

And while top-seeded Batang Pier would still like to move past that stage and make a breakthrough finals stint, they find themselves currently sitting on the edge of elimination after going down 0-3 in the best-of-seven semis duel against Barangay Ginebra.

"We’re just really trying to be positive. We actually overachieved this conference and yeah, we’re just trying to be positive and stick to each other," Tolentino said on the heels of their 127-100 Game 3 loss on Sunday night.

"It’s really a hard thing to do right now being down 0-3. I can’t say we’re good, because we’re down, but ‘yung morale ng team is I can say okay pa naman kami."

[It's really a hard thing to do right now being down 0-3. I can't say we're good, because we're down but the morale of the team, I can say we're still okay.]

Tolentino admitted their current status isn't anything like he imagined.

After all, NorthPort was the best team after the eliminations after racking up nine wins against three losses. Of those wins, the NorthPort actually beat the Gin Kings via a hard-fought 119-116 victory last January 8.

NorthPort also had the advantage of preparing for the semifinals as a complete unit, unlike Ginebra that had to loan players to Gilas Pilipinas for the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers and Doha International Cup for two weeks, including Justin Brownlee and Scottie Thompson.

"Actually mataas ‘yung kumpiyansa namin coming into this series kasi panalo kami sa kanila nu’ng elims so may mental advantage kami sa kanila," Tolentino shared.

"We also had two weeks of preparation. Hindi namin actually in-expect ‘yung ganito."

[Actually, our confidence was high coming into this series because we beat them during the elims so we had a mental advantage against them... We also had two weeks of preparation. We didn't expect it to be like this,.]

But right now, all NorthPort could do is cling to positives as they hope to extend the series come Game 4 on Wednesday.

"We all know naman na Ginebra is an experienced team. They have Coach Tim Cone and five or six national team players and they’ve been together for a long time and siguro we beat them nu’ng eliminations but they really adjusted sa amin nitong playoffs," he added.

"Until now, we’re still looking for answers to why a lot of things are not clicking. Good thing we have one more chance."

[We all know that Ginebra is an experienced team. They have Coach Tim Cone and five or six national team players and they've been together for a long time. We beat them in the elimations but they really adjusted to us in these playoffs... Until now, we’re still looking for answers to why a lot of things are not clicking. Good thing we have one more chance.]

—JMB, GMA Integrated News