PRECIOUS Momowei is such an integral part of University of the East's attack that the leather is almost always expected to go to his hands.
But him taking only five shots in their 77-62 defeat to Adamson last Saturday certainly raised a lot of eyebrows.
Coach Chris Gavina, however, was quick to quell the talks and took responsibility for the lack of touches that his prized Nigerian forward had in this game.
"We know that a lot of the defenses are dialling in on him, so we're trying to get more movement before we go to his actions so that teams can't really lock in their entire defensive scouting scheme on him," Gavina said.
"But I feel it is up to me as a head coach to try to get him to positions where he can be more effective on the floor, where teams won't be able to double team him or take away his strengths," he added.
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Prior to this game, Momowei has attempted 11.5 shots in UE's first four games, averaging 13.8 points. But in the loss to Adamson, he only went 2-of-5 from the field and finished with a season-low seven points in 36 minutes of play off the bench.
His offensive output aside, it's the same old Momowei in the other departments in that game as he still hauled down 18 rebounds and dished out five assists, exceeding his averages of 14.8 boards and 2.8 dimes.
Gavina though stressed on Momowei's growth which, in his book, has been nothing but a boon to UE.
"He's been a great leader for me so far, his temperament and his growth, I've applauded. He wants to do whatever's needed and what's best for the team," he said.
"Sometimes, it's just a mindset on his part of trying to take over, but I think he's trying to do so much of trying to be a facilitator when there's times where he's just got to say, 'Just give me the ball and then I'll carry the load.' But we move forward and he's definitely going to have to get more touches as we move forward."
Despite their 0-5 record in the UAAP Season 88 men's basketball tournament, the Red Warriors have been showing flashes of potential as they have had spurts of competitiveness and have shown that they're no pushovers.
The Recto side's 33-point third quarter performance against the Soaring Falcons was one of the few indications of that, recovering from their early struggles to keep up with the opposition.
That didn't go unnoticed for Gavina.
"I'm the type of coach that you gotta take the small victories and you gotta take the hardships," he stated.
"To have that 33-12 run that we had in the third was inspirational, in my opinion, and I told them that if we can perform like that on a given quarter, we can be in any game against any UAAP team."
However, there's a big difference between being competitive and actually closing it out -- something that this UE team has been unable to do so far in this campaign.
"Then again, consistency has been something lacking on our part in how we finish games. You go 20-4 [in the fourth quarter]? I can score four points in one quarter, in my opinion, if I get out there. So we have to do a better job of having a finishing kick obviously," said Gavina of his team's latest fourth quarter letdown.
"We gotta go through the fire, to be honest with you. When you're young like the young players that we have, everybody's eager to play but they don't know how to win yet. And that's what we're up against, we're up against highly touted killers on the opposing teams that know how to finish."
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