ANTIPOLO – It was a long, agonizing night for Converge.
The FiberXers not only lost badly but suffered injuries to young players Justin Arana and Kurt Lojera in a 111-92 blowout at the hands of San Miguel Beer in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ynares Center on Sunday night.
Arana went down with a double sprain while Lojera ended up with a big lump just below his left eye after taking a hit from Mo Tautuaa while driving to the basket.
[See Injury-hit Converge suffers lopsided loss to SMB]
It didn’t help the team’s cause too, that another rookie big man Jeo Ambohot didn’t see action after being placed under the league’s health and safety protocols.
“Sprained ankle, but I’m not sure if the second ankle sprain was the same. And I hope ‘yung tweak ay hindi naman ganun ka-grabe,” said Converge coach Jeff Cariaso.
When Arana initially sprained his ankle, Cariaso had concerns about fielding him back.
“You see the fight in the kid, alam mong fighter, He told me he’s OK to come back,” the Converge coach added. “So I gave him another chance, although I was a little bit worried.”
Arana finished with four points and six rebounds and went out for good with still 7:07 left to play and the FiberXers trailing, 94-74.
Lojera meanwhile, went scoreless and never returned after getting the inadvertent elbow from Tautuaa with 2:40 left before the break.
Tautuaa was whistled for an unsportsmanlike foul, with Lojera missing both his free attempts as the lump in his left eye obviously bothered him.
It was the fourth loss in six outings for the FiberXers.
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