Cameroonian student-athlete Papi Sarr was just on the bench during the Akari-Adamson Soaring Falcons’ match with the CEU Scorpions on Tuesday at JCSGO Gym in Cubao. But he wasn’t nursing any injury or experiencing health issues whatsoever.
Sarr, as it turned out, had lost his uniform the morning prior to the game.
Sports5’s Carlo Pamintuan revealed the information on air, saying that it was shared by Adamson assistant coach Renren Ritualo. According to Ritualo, Sarr explained that he had even washed his uniform the night before the match.
“He lost his uniform. That’s about it,” confirmed head coach Franz Pumaren.
Sarr was averaging 11.6 points and 9.6 rebounds prior to Tuesday, and his absence affected Adamson, as they bowed to Rod Ebondo and the Scorpions, 57-76, and witnessed their three-game winning streak come to an end.
Pumaren, however, doesn’t want to pin their loss to the Cameroonian’s absence.
“We just couldn’t buy a basket,” said the veteran bench strategist, as Adamson shot just 29 percent from the floor. “But if you look at the score, we were able to hold them down to 70-plus points. The problem really is we can’t execute eh.
“They just played well, [and] we played bad. That’s the bottom line.”
