Tenorio shrugs off scoring woes in win against ROS

Ginebra point guard LA Tenorio offered no excuses for his woeful shooting against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters on Sunday night, but believed he made enough contributions on the defensive end to make up for it.

Tenorio missed all six of his field goal attempts against Rain or Shine in their PBA Philippine Cup game at the Mall of Asia Arena, and also muffed two crucial free throws when the Gin Kings were in the midst of a fourth quarter rally.

He did have five rebounds and six assists, while also playing solid defense down the stretch as Ginebra forced the Elasto Painters to miss their last 12 shots of the game.

Offensively, you can say that I really struggled, and randam ko naman 'yun," Tenorio acknowledged after their 81-74 comefrom-behind win. "I take the blame for that."

"The thing na ginawa ko na lang is to play defense, especially down the stretch," he added. "I was out of focus during the game, but sa depensa, hindi ka naman mawawala sa focus dapat, so 'yun na lang ang ginawa ko just to help the t eam ."

Moreover, Tenorio would rather take this kind of game – where he scores a few points but they still win – than the one they had last week against the TNT KaTropa. In that contest, Tenorio had 27 points, making nine of his 16 shots, to go along with six assi st s.

But they had no answer for Ranidel de Ocampo down the stretch, and wound up losing, 103-108, after wasting a double-digit spread early in the final qu ar t er.

"I'd rather take this game than the last game – scoring a lot of points, pero hindi naman kami nanalo," said Tenorio.

This has been a pattern ever since last conference, Tenorio noted. "Last year pa, last conference pa – every time I score a lot, natatalo," he pointed out.

"So I'd rather take this kind of win, this grind-out win. Kahit pangit na panalo, as long as we did our best, especially on the defensive end," he added. "We limited them to below 80 (points)."

Tenorio gave credit to his teammates for coming up with solid performances that helped them secure the win despite his shooting w oes. Jay-Jay Helterbrand, for instance, had four quick points off the bench, while Japeth Aguilar was solid all game long and finished with a double-double of 23 points and 13 rebounds.

"Hindi sila naggive up talaga," Tenorio said of his teamamtes. "Ako lang talaga, alam ko na nag-struggle ako, so I let them do their thing."

The win over Rain or Shine put Ginebra's record at 1-1, with a game against league-leading GlobalPort coming up next in their schedule.

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