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