By REYNALD MAGALLON
Rain or Shine just couldn’t catch a break as big man Keith Datu is likely to be out for the rest of the season after suffering a knee injury in the Elasto Painters’ 91-80 victory over the Phoenix Fuel Masters on Wednesday, Nov. 6.
According to a source, Datu sustained a ruptured patellar tendon injury after slipping on his own while driving to the basket at the 7:47 mark of the third quarter.
The injury was said to be the same as the one that Jason Castro had last season which required him to undergo the knife to repair. The TNT guard has yet to return to court after suffering the same injury last February.
With Datu facing a possible long layoff, the already undermanned Elasto Painters just got even thinner at the frontline with Caelan Tiongson and Luis Villegas still recovering from their respective injuries and Beau Belga remaining in minute restriction.
That left ROS with Leonard Santillan, Gabe Norwood and Kris Porter as the team’s healthy big men.
“Mahirap kasi na minamanage namin yung minutes ni Beau, tapos si Keith nagkaproblema ngayon tapos si Caelan injured rin, baka puro gwardya na lang ilaro namin pagka-ganun. We just have to find ways,” said Guiao.
The glaring hole inside the middle was very obvious in the game against Phoenix as Guiao admitted that the team struggled to contain Jason Perkins in some stretches of the contest.
“We had some problems containing Jason Perkins for a stretch. He was just having his way in the middle. Because nga, kulang kami sa malaki. Yung laki ng katawan ni Gabe, yun na lang ang pinanglalaban namin dun sa katawan ni Perkins. But, it paid off,” he added.
Good thing for ROS, after its game against NLEX on Saturday, Nov. 8, the team will have a week’s rest that should be valuable for their injured players.
“It is a good thing na yung nangyari we have time to figure something out in the next three weeks. or Shine just couldn’t catch a break as big man Keith Datu has been ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering a knee injury in the Elasto Painters’ 91-80 victory over the Phoenix Fuel Masters on Wednesday, Nov. 6.
According to a source and was later on confirmed by the ROS franchise, Datu sustained a ruptured patellar tendon injury after slipping on his own while driving to the basket at the 7:47 mark of the third quarter.
The injury was said to be the same as the one that Jason Castro had last season which required him to undergo the knife to repair. The TNT guard has yet to return to court after suffering the same injury last February.
With Datu facing a possible long layoff, the already undermanned Elasto Painters just got even thinner at the frontline with Caelan Tiongson and Luis Villegas still recovering from their respective injuries and Beau Belga remaining in minute restriction.
That left ROS with Leonard Santillan, Gabe Norwood and Kris Porter as the team’s healthy big men.
“Mahirap kasi na minamanage namin yung minutes ni Beau, tapos si Keith nagkaproblema ngayon tapos si Caelan injured rin, baka puro gwardya na lang ilaro namin pagka-ganun. We just have to find ways,” said Guiao.
The glaring hole inside the middle was very obvious in the game against Phoenix as Guiao admitted that the team struggled to contain Jason Perkins in some stretches of the contest.
“We had some problems containing Jason Perkins for a stretch. He was just having his way in the middle. Because nga, kulang kami sa malaki. Yung laki ng katawan ni Gabe, yun na lang ang pinanglalaban namin dun sa katawan ni Perkins. But, it paid off,” he added.
Good thing for ROS, after its game against NLEX on Saturday, Nov. 8, the team will have a week’s rest that should be valuable for their injured players.
“It is a good thing na yung nangyari we have time to figure something out in the next three weeks.
