BRANDONE Francis was nursing a hurting groin, so Phoenix decided to sit him out for the entire second half of their final game in the PBA Governors’ Cup Friday night against NLEX.
Coach Jamike Jarin benched the explosive import in the last two quarters of the Fuel Masters’ 104-79 loss to the Road Warriors so as not to aggravate his injury.
The Dominican Republic native got the injury during the team’s 119-114 win over Blackwater.
He was never the same again after that.
“If you would have seen him, he wasn’t playing much because of that injury,” said Jarin after the game at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Francis played just 16 minutes and finished with four points, three rebounds, and two assists.
Phoenix's finale
The Fuel Masters ended their campaign with a 1-9 record and failed to advance to the playoffs for the second straight conference.
Jarin said Francis just came a bit late as a replacement for Jay McKinnis.
Francis came in for Phoenix's fourth game of the conference, when it was still winless through three tries.
“The dynamics changed a lot of things because he’s a perimeter (player), so the things we worked on, the rotation, the substitution patterns, (they changed). It’s just that we needed more time,” said Jarin.
“But because of the schedule, it’s almost every other day that we play, so familiarity was an issue for us.”
Nonetheless, the veteran mentor said the Fuel Masters definitely learned a lot of lessons out of this campaign.
“We learned from these things and we will handle it better,” said Jarin. “We need to get better in the (next) conference.”
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