Meralco Bolts’ veteran Reynel Hugnatan holding the fort against bigger and younger opponents
FOR MANY YEARS, Reynel Hugnatan has been holding his own against players who came — and some of them already gone — in the PBA with his hustle plays, steady performance and no nonsense defense.
On Monday night with the semifinals berth on the line, the Meralco Bolts relied on the tried-and-tested old center/ forward who delivered big in their seriesclinching win over the NLEX Road Warriors, 104-97.
The lefty veteran finished with 20 points to lead the way for the Bolts, whose import Arinze Onuaku, struggled anew scoring only 13 markers.
Meralco coach Norman Black heaped praise on his hardworking old reliable.
“Reynel Hugnatan carried us for a long time when Arinze was struggling,” said Mr. Black.
For Mr. Hugnatan, keeping up against his younger counterparts was just a product of the old-fashioned hard work and dedication, which he had shown the past 13 years.
“You have to be in good condition. You have to be ready all the time. You have to be more disciplined. I’m not young anymore. You have to be aware on the intake of your food, then you have to do the extra work,” Mr. Hugnatan told BusinessWorld.
Mr. Hugnatan barged his way to the pro league in 2003, but only a few of the notable members of this batch are still playing in the PBA, including his teammate Jimmy Alapag, who won the Rookie of the Year honors that season, Tropang TNT’s Harvey Carey and veteran center Billy Mamaril of GlobalPort.
He continued pushing himself and tried to help the Bolts as far as they can go. The Bolts are now in the semifinals of the Commissioner’s Cup for the second straight season and made a complete turnaround from last conference’s miserable campaign where the team became the first team to be eliminated, winning only one of 11 games in the elimination round.
“We’re all very disappointed last conference. We’ve learned our lessons. This conference, we came out really focused and our mission was really to come out with a better performance. Arinze was really a big factor for us. He really provided us the inside presence that we need and we really helped each other out,” added Mr. Hugnatan.
A member of several champion squads before like Coca-Cola and Alaska, Mr. Hugnatan hopes to steer the Bolts to their first-ever finals stint this season, a perfect way to cap the remaining years of his playing career.