Another heart-breaker for the Road Warriors
First-year NLEX head coach Yeng Guiao was in a foul mood on Friday evening, while the Road Warriors did not know what had hit them. They had just coughed up a 29-point lead against the TNT Katropa before losing a 121-126 overtime heart-breaker.
“Sakit eh, dalawang magkasunod [na heartbreaking loss],” admitted sophomore Kevin Alas, who finished the game with 19 points, five rebounds, and two assists.
“We have to learn how to close out games.”
But NLEX had numerous chances to close out the game, none more crucial than a perfect play that turned into a botch with 7.9 ticks remaining.
Off a timeout and with the game tied at 113-all, Alas was able to locate Garvo Lanete in the right corner for a wide open triple. However, the triple never came to be as Lanete was not able to make the catch, resulting in a turnover.
But the second overall pick in the 2014 draft took the bullet, saying that it might have been his pass that caused the error.
“Bad pass siguro [yun],” the third-year guard said.
Coach Yeng Guiao absolved Alas from what happened.
“He [Lanete] was open at the corner and then he fumbled the pass from Kevin. It was not the prettiest pass, hindi naman siya perfect pass, but it was a catchable pass,” Guiao remarked.
But with the 0-5 hole that they are in, the former Letranite is charging this one as an experience that will only help them grow as a team.
“Yung talo namin ngayon, siyempre it’s frustrating kasi nakakababa ng morale yan pero we just have to move on. Siguro practice harder, and keep on improving para next games, we won’t make the same mistakes,” Alas furthered.
“We have to be mature kasi we can’t close out games.”
