Magnolia coach Chito Victolero rues 'mental lapses' in Game 6 collapse

Magnolia was on its way to forcing a winner-take-all Game 7 when Paul Lee hit a potential dagger in the final two minutes and 28 seconds that gave them a 98-92 cushion in Game 6 of the PBA Commissioner's Cup Finals against San Miguel on Wednesday. 

However, a series of turnovers from their side, coupled with clutch shots by the Beermen, doomed what has been a stellar game from the Hotshots. According to head coach Chito Victolero, those were products of their mental lapses in the endgame.

"Siguro we had some mental lapses in the last six minutes of the game," Victolero said.

(Perhaps, we had some mental lapses in the last six minutes of the game.)

After Lee's long bomb that was followed by a fastbreak layup from CJ Perez, Calvin Abueva committed a turnover that led to a triple from Jericho Cruz that sliced the gap to one, 98-97.

Tyler Bey then split his freebies before Chris Ross' three-pointer sent the Beermen to a 100-99 lead with 1:27 left. Abueva's another turnover set the stage for a Perez triple as Rome dela Rosa was whistled for a five-second violation in the inbound pass.

Aris Dionisio would still sink a triple, 102-103, but Magnolia failed to secure the defensive rebound after Perez missed two from the stripe. Cruz then put the finishing touch with a free throw as San Miguel erased a 13-point deficit.

Victolero admitted that it was tough facing a mighty San Miguel squad, whose bench players play just as splendid as their starters.

"No one believed in us that we can compete against the mighty San Miguel Beermen, but we proved that we can challenge them. We’re one rebound away or one stop away or one execution away from Game 7," Victolero added.

"Maybe we just need to learn how to finish the game next time and how to become composed. ‘Yung core ng team ko ngayon, kumbaga bago na ‘to. We learned a lot, especially the young guns."

(The core of our team now is young. We learned a lot, especially the young guns.)

Still, Victolero was the first to console his players and said they will bounce back from this tough loss come the Philippine Cup.

"I’m still proud of my players. We’re still there until the end of the game. I’m proud of the effort and we have this journey  and I told them na medyo kulang lang ‘yung journey for this conference, but they prepared hard for this," he added.

(I told them that we may have fell short in our journey this conference, but they prepared hard for this.)

"Congratulations sa San Miguel, we just need to rest and just bounce back hard in the next conference."

—JKC, GMA Integrated News