ANTIPOLO – A plantar fasciitis in his foot kept high-scoring rookie Sedrick Barefield from seeing action for Blackwater in its PBA Commissioner’s Cup game against NLEX on Saturday.
The top overall pick in the last rookie draft was in street clothes when he showed up at the Ynares Center and watched the game on the bench as the Bossing absorbed a 107-95 loss.
Coach Jeff Cariaso said Barefield sustained the injury in the team’s debut outing against Magnolia.
“He hurt himself last game and after playing a lot of minutes the last time, in our last practice sumakit yung paa niya pagka-gising niya,” said Cariaso of the Fil-Am guard’s health situation.
“We tried to have him go today, but hindi kaya.”
READ: NLEX takes care of big lead this time, shuns Blackwater
Barefield is the top local scorer for the Bossing, finishing with 24 points in the team’s 118-100 loss to the Magnolia Hotshots last Thursday.
The Bossing obviously missed his scoring mileage against the Road Warriors as import George King carried the majority of the load with 40 points and eight rebounds.
Justin Chua was the only other player in double figures with 13 points for Blackwater, which fell to a 0-2 record.
The good thing is the injury doesn’t necessitate surgery.
“No naman. Hopefully, makukuha yun sa arc support, so we’ll go from there,” said Cariaso.
More than Barefield’s scoring prowess, the Blackwater coach said the team needed to get better defensively.
“We could be better. We didn’t start the way we wanted to start,” said Cariaso. “Lots of work especially defensively. I think that’s where really our focus is going to be especially in the next 10 games.”
The Bossing won’t be seeing action again until Dec. 10 when they face guest team Eastern.
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