Lessons learned: Stags coach Agustin remains positive after loss

San Sebastian coach Ato Agustin admitted that his Stags focused more in roughhousing and trash talking instead of beating San Beda during their highly-anticipated clash on Wednesday at The Arena in San Juan. "I told them that they should not get caught up with the trash talking of the other team and the rough plays they're doing on the court," Agustin said after his Stags suffered an 88-76 mauling from the Red Lions. In that contest, the defending champions struggled for most of the game, trailing by 18 points, muffed a number of free throws (18-of-38) and gave up 17 fastbreak points. "As far as rebounds and turnovers are concerned, we're OK with that," Agustin said. "But the free throws and the transition points that we gave up really hurt us." Although Calvin Abueva got his numbers, finishing with 18 points and 14 rebounds, he struggled inside against San Beda's huge frontline composed of American Sudan Daniel, Dave Marcelo and twin brothers Anthony and Dave Semerad. He even engaged in several physical encounters with the Semerad brothers and forced a lot of difficult shots inside. "The effort was there, but again Calvin was out of control again. He has to play smart," said Agustin, who later saw another crushing defeat as an assistant of San Miguel Beer, which lost to Alaska in Game 6 (102-88) of the PBA Fiesta Conference Finals. Although backup guard Raymond Maconocido finished with 15 points, the offensive game of starters Pamboy Raymundo and Anthony Del Rio were non-existent as they combined for just eight points. "I'm glad Maco (Maconocido) played well. That's his game. But Pamboy and Anthony didn't play well," Agustin said. The Stags start their second round assignment against Emilio Aguinaldo College on Monday, hoping that the lessons of this defeat would help them in their title retention bid. San Beda, on the other hand, start its second-round campaign against College of St. Benilde with the Red Lions hoping to remain undefeated. "They tend to believe that they can come back from big deficits," Agustin said. "I guess it's good that we lost this game so that they would learn their lesson." "I have to give credit to San Beda. They prepared very well against us," he added. – RCJ/JVP, GMANews.TV