BARAKO Bull coach Koy Banal admitted he didn’t see Kia’s pressure defense coming in their PBA Governors’ Cup game on Wednesday.
The Carnival surprised the Energy with a full-court trap that forced them to commit 21 turnovers and resulted in a 71-68 victory.
“They did a good job pressing us,” Banal said. “We were not aware of that – yung capability ng Kia to play good defense and pressure us.”
“We should’ve have respected them of their capabilities of playing on both ends,” he added.
Apart from being unable to get their transition game going, the Energy also failed to convert in their half-court game, leaving Banal to admit the game was really not meant for them.
“There’s such a thing as an off night,” the veteran tactician said.
Prime example was Joseph Yeo, who wound up missing all his 11 attempts to come up empty handed in the scoring column after coming in averaging 16.3 points per game this conference.
“Wala, ganun talaga eh. Nangyayari talaga ‘yan,” the former La Salle star said. “It’s not really my first game na ganun. Since college, paminsan nangyayari talaga.”
But even when he started to fire blanks in the game, Yeo never hesitated to keep taking shots.
“Hindi ka naman pwede tumigil tumira,” he said. “Pag hindi ka tumira, masisira yung flow ng game lalo, ‘di ba?”
“Minalas na rin talaga,” he added. “Yung ibang open shots, hindi na rin namin ma-shoot. Hanggang sa huil, hindi na kami maka-shoot.”
“Syempre, give credit rin sa Kia,” Yeo continued. “They prepared well for us, sa akin, at sa import, at kay JC.”
Liam Mcmorrow was held to just 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting, while JC Intal contributed just four points after missing six of his eight shots in 29 minutes.
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