Floodbuster is Beermen’s biggest thorn, says Austria
SINCE last season, defending champion San Miguel Beer has had difficulties beating Mahindra, particularly in the import-laden conference.
In the All-Filipino tournament, the Beermen though had been able to win against the Floodbuster, but had to go through a wringer before finally achieving it.
The Beermen had been pushed to the limit anew by a lowly Floodbuster team that has yet to win this conference and although the three-peat seeking squad was able to escape with a 94-91 squeaker, head coach Leo Austria is convinced Mahindra has become the biggest thorn for his squad.
“Let’s not forget, we lost to this team last conference twice,” Mr. Austria told sportswriters. “So I was not surprised that we had a difficult time beating them this tournament.”
Although the Beermen had defeated the Floodbuster three times in all of their encounters in the All-Filipino, the Floodbuster were able to beat their rivals in all of their four meetings in the Commissioner’s and Governor’s Cups.
Even reigning back-to-back Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo couldn’t figure out why his team had difficulties beating Mahindra.
“They always come up with a good game plan against us,” added Mr. Fajardo. “We just have to find ways beating them and prepare hard against them.”
Mr. Fajardo was able to come away with a double-double performance of 28 points and 15 rebounds, but in some stretches, the Flodbuster’s defense was able to clamp down on him and take him out of his comfort zone.
Mr. Austria said that Mahindra had proven to be a good match up against them and this is a challenge to the rest of the players and the coaching staff.
“It goes to show that you cannot take any team lightly because each team is capable of beating anyone and Mahindra is one of them,” said Mr. Austria.