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Shell in dire straits... (continued...)
Rommel Santos has stepped up for Castillo, but the slack left by Pablo has yet to be filled and Ronquillo better find out who to tap - quick. Anthony dela Cruz, Shell's Fil-American recruit, played his first game Sunday but was no where near the caliber of a Pablo. He wound up with a rebound, a turnover and scoreless in five minutes and didn't show much promise. But Ronquillo is keeping his patience - and his faith. "I wanted to give him more time," said Ronquillo of Dela Cruz. "Medyo jittery and very excited. I want to break him in slowly. Unfair sabihin he's going to come and be the savior. I believe in Tony and I know, one of these days he's going to come out. But I don't want to put him in the fire right away." "We're still having a hard time filling up that void left by Vic, because I feel Benjie (Paras) and Chris (Jackson) are really overworked. They've been playing 45 - 46 minutes and have not had much rest," said Ronquillo. "As before, may 3-man rotation ako underneath and the quality of play would not really suffer. Nobody has taken up that slack," added Perry, who was also quick in pointing out that he does expect a lot from Dela Cruz, but not at the immediate time. "This team is strong and it has character and it has the heart. Our problem is how to sustain our game from the beginning up to the end. Unfair for me to assume that new guys would step up immediately. I'm just giving them the time to absorb everything." He added on Dela Cruz: "He works very hard, comes first and leaves last at practice. I see the dedication in the kid, and whenever you have a player like that you can't go wrong. "I'm not at all disappointed at the way these guys played our first three games. I'm damn proud of them. Hindi ako nanghihinayang. Alam ko darating at darating ang araw mananalo ulit kami." "I think last year, let's face it, we had more talent and experience, and those are the things you need to win games, especially close ones. But things this year are different, may birth pains ulit kami and we have to start from the bottom again - literally and figuratively." (Source: Sun Star Manila - March 7, 2000) (Webmaster's Note: We are currently looking for contributors to write for this section. If you want to contribute sports article about the Shell team, please forward it to the webmaster.)
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