THE spate of players’ absences were just too much to bear for Meralco.
The Bolts were without four key players including their leading local scorer in an 84-75 loss against Barangay Ginebra Friday night in the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The team missed the services of CJ Cansino, Bong Quinto, veteran Raymond Almazan, and rookie guard Jason due to various injuries and health reasons.
READ: RJ Abarrientos' breakout leads Ginebra rout of depleted Meralco
Cansino was out with a hip flexor, Almazan has back spasm, Brickman is down with the flu, and Quinto contracted vertigo on the morning of the game.
The 26-year-old Cansino leads all Meralco locals in scoring with a 14.2 average, while Brickman and Quinto norm 8.7 and 8.5 points per outing respectively.
The 6-foot-8 Almazan meanwhile, has yet to see action in the final conference of Season 50.
Ginebra coach Tim Cone obviously commiserated with Meralco’s situation, but stressed Ginebra has a job to do.
“This is the ups and downs of a conference and of the season. You’re going to lose guys. And if you have to play teams that doesn’t have guys, you have to take advantage of that time,” he said.
“Because you will have the time when you won’t have your own guys,” added Cone, noting that Ginebra itself doesn’t have star Scottie Thompson (hamstring injury) around.
Meralco lost for the second game in a row and carry a 2-3 record.
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