MONTALBAN – Blackwater playing without Sedrick Barefield in its PBA Philippine Cup game against NLEX was hard enough.
But losing big man Christian David during the course of the match was just too much.
Although not making excuses, Bossing coach Jeff Cariaso admitted it was difficult to keep in step with an in-form Road Warriors side without their top two scorers, leading to an 80-72 loss on Friday night at the Ynares Center II.
READ Barefield out of Blackwater game vs NLEX due to hamstring injury
Barefield didn’t see action due to a pulled hamstring, while David suffered a sprained ankle with barely four minutes gone in the first-ever PBA game to be held in the newly-built playing venue.
Cariaso said Barefield was already feeling some tightness in his hamstring even before the team’s 120-98 win over Northport.
“So what happened during our game against Northport, he tweaked it a little bit more. So we did our best the last four days trying to prepare him. Pero hindi kaya, e,” said the Blackwater coach. “So it was too much of a strain.”
And then there’s David exiting after playing just three minutes in the first quarter.
“So we missed him (Barefield). And then of course CD (Christian David) sprained his ankle. So we didn’t have our two top scorers today,” added Cariaso.
Barefield and David combined for 39 points in Blackwater’s previous outing against Northport.
Without those numbers against NLEX, the Bossing fell to their third straight loss for a 1-3 slate.
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