If beating former Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao wasn’t enough of a motivation, coach Caloy Garcia added another one Friday evening
For the first 36 minutes of Rain or Shine’s game against the NLEX Road Warriors, the Elasto Painters were struggling, falling by as much as 12 points. Stretch forward Beau Belga himself was unusually passive, attempting just three attempts during that frame.
“And medyo kinabahan ako kasi sabi ni coach Caloy na pagkanatalo dito, may ensayo bukas hanggang New Year,” Belga said about Garcia’s fiery halftime speech.
“Sabi ko, hindi puwede. Marami akong gagawin ngayong Pasko!”
And when Belga knocked down his only field goal in the game — a three-pointer with 8:21 remaining in the game that gave them an 93-89 lead, the relief on the 280 pound forward’s face was more than animated. The Elasto Painters eventually took a 107-97 win to go to 4-2 in the standings.
For the Sorsogon-native, the victory was sweet as he did not want to fall twice against two people who used to be part of their franchise.
“Na-relieve ako kasi sakasakali na matalo kami, pangalawang bukol na ito. Una kay Paul [Lee] tapos kay coach Yeng,” he said.
Making it more sweeter was that he could now spend the holiday season with wife Queenie and son Zach.
“Walang ensayo hanggang 26 tapos balik ng 27 hanggang 30. Tapos break ulit ng 31 at 1,” the seventh overall pick in the 2008 draft said.
“Maganda yung Pasko at New Year. Tsaka okay din yun na matatapos yung taon ng panalo. Positive talaga.”
This Christmas will definitely be merry for Beau and the Belga family.
