IN La Salle's biggest test to date against unbeaten league leader UP, Evan Nelle was nowhere to be seen on the court.
This was due to a quad contusion that sidelined him in a narrow three-point loss on Wednesday.
But Green Archers head coach Topex Robinson quickly allayed fears of its main man missing much more game time.
READ: UP Maroons survive brave stand by La Salle, stay unbeaten
"Hopefully we are gonna have him this Saturday (versus UE), but we wanna make sure that he is gonna be ready because the span of the games are gonna be shorter so we don’t wanna rush it," said Robinson.
"We have other guys who are willing to step up for Evan. We dont wanna gamble on him if he is not really ready so he's going to be a day-to-day for us," he added.
In the Archers' first five matches where they've won three and lost two prior to the UP defeat, Nelle played 31:59 minutes on average and posted 12 points, seven boards, 6.2 assists, and 1.8 steals per game with a net efficiency rate of +55.
"Did you ever imagine that we would not have Evan Nelle in our team against UP? People are looking at the three points that we scored in the third, those missed shots, those shots we didn’t make. But we don’t have Evan in our lineup coming into this game. I hope people remember that," the La Salle mentor stressed.
"We have guys who are just willing to take care of each other, cover for each other."
Nelle's potential return date on Saturday coincides with the Green Archers' first round finale against the Red Warriors, 4 p.m. at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion.
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