While absorbing their first PBA Philippine Cup Finals loss together surely stings, the remnants of the famed San Miguel Death Five June Mar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter and Chris Ross held their heads high and tipped their hats off to the champions Meralco Bolts.

Pegged as the heavy favorites in the Finals especially after dominating their way through the eliminations and the playoffs, SMB fell short of its bid of retaining the all-Filipino crown after yielding to Meralco through six games – highlighted by a game-winning jumper from Chris Newsome in the 80-78 Game 6 win.

The SMB trio took the defeat to the chin and admitted that they lost to simply the better team.

“Well, you can't win them all. First of all, give credit to Meralco, they deserve it, and at the end of the day, you just can't win them all,” said Lassiter who never tasted defeat in the PH Cup finals since joining the Beermen and winning it all in his previous six appearances.

Ross, who shared the same distinction with Lassiter, credited the mental toughness displayed by the Bolts all throughout the best-of-seven Finals series.

“The better team won. They were a well-oiled machine, man. It was fun, man. Each game went down to the wire, there were no blowouts, so let's give credit to them. Even in games where they felt they should've won, they came back like nothing happened, and that takes mental toughness,” said Ross.

While he believed the Beermen could have done and performed better, Fajardo was not taking anything away from the Bolts especially with their efforts in defending him inside the paint and their shooters from the outside.

“Kailangan nating tanggapin 'yung pagkatalo natin. Maybe, time naman ng Meralco na mag-champion ngayon, 'di ba? Palakpakan natin 'yung dapat palakpakan, i-congratulate natin 'yung dapat i-congratulate. Masakit man na natalo pero ganun talaga 'yung buhay,” said Fajardo.

For one, it was the end of the road for the Beermen as they remain formidable with its powerhouse lineup – having the tools to certainly bounce back and reclaim their crown they owned for six seasons in the last decade including five straight from 2014-2019.

“I'm proud of all our players. We went out to war, that's what you expect. We gave our all, sometimes the ball doesn't bounce the way we want to, you know, that's just the way it is. That being said, you know, we just got to learn from this,” said Lassiter.

“Kami naman, heads up lang kasi hindi pa naman end of the world para sa amin e. May next conference pa naman so pwede kami mag-bounce back doon,” echoed Fajardo.