Converge slowly banishing atrocious specter of past PBA season

MANILA, Philippines -- Following a tough season last year, things are looking better for the Converge FiberXers.

After winning just a total of three games in the PBA Season 48 -- one in the Commissioner’s Cup and two in the Philippine Cup -- Converge has now won two out of three contests thus far in the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup.

On Tuesday, the FiberXers upset the defending champions TNT Tropang Giga, 96-95, in dramatic fashion.

They trailed by as much as 16 points, but clawed back and won via a 4-point shot by import Scotty Hopson with time winding down. It is the first-ever 4-point game winner in an official PBA game.

And while there will be a quick turnaround -- they will be facing the NorthPort Batang Pier on Thursday -- and while it may be too early to say if the team will be able to sustain the good start throughout the whole conference, head coach Franco Atienza said that they are continuously moving forward from last year’s atrocious season.

“We’re not proud of last season. We would be, but the lessons from the… the thinking would be, we want to move forward. We want to look forward. The things that we learned that would help us, we bring it here. The things that cannot help us, we leave it there,” he said.

“You find that inspiration, the feeling of pain, the feeling of hurt, to not do the same mistakes, and maybe at some point, being a young team composed of predominantly 90% young players except with [Kevin Racal] and I have to mention Scotty, one of the older guys, it’s a learning curve. How do you shorten the learning curve? By getting veteran guys,” he added.

After making the quarterfinals in PBA Season 47, the team finished dead-last in both conferences last season with the team composed of young guys.

In the Commissioner’s Cup, Converge lost its first six contests before winning its only game.

And in the Philippine Cup, they lost eight straight before winning two of their final three.

“Coming from that struggle last season, we got that experience already, two conference season last year, and we were able to somehow… It’s too early, it’s just our third game, we’re 2-1, it’s a good start, but it’s too early. Somehow we surpassed our first conference standing and we tied our second conference standing, but we don’t want to be content,” Atienza said.

“We’re just taking it one day at a time. Probably this win stays tonight. Tomorrow, we’re preparing for NorthPort. Quick turnaround for us, but being able to grind out something like this really tough game against a tough team, it gets you a bit of confidence coming to the next game.”

Against the Tropang Giga, Atienza underscored that they were challenged by an up-and-down performance and the struggle of finding the perfect tempo.

“We started the game okay, then we went down, second quarter we made a run, late second quarter we were down again. The tempo of the game is just different because they force us to play small and we have to choose either, do you match up or do you go to your advantage?” Atienza said.

“So that’s the decision-making all game long and it’s just nice that for an offensive team like Talk N Text and filled with shooters… It’s a different type of game that we really need to adjust and pick our poison. We are just glad that the boys responded,” he added.

“Basically we won this through defense, just staying together, believing in each other, keeping the grind and not giving up.”

Tuesday’s contest gave TNT its first loss of the season and likewise putting Converge on top of the standings of Group A play.