Bakers move on from rout with tougher battle ahead

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Cafe France couldn’t care less about what the result of its final elimination game against Batangas on Monday.

Congolese Rod Ebondo shared that with the Bakers locked in at third place, there was no reason for coach Egay Macaraya to exhaust his wards going to the playoffs.

“The game plan was just to let the other guys step up and to learn to play without me and Paul (Desiderio). That was really our game plan,” he said. “That was really the reason why he rested me in the game.”

READ: Sara, also-ran Batangas stun Cafe France

With the team’s leading scorers only playing for a combined nine minutes in the game, Cafe France fell to also-ran Batangas, 91-69, as it stumbled to the playoffs on a two-game losing skid.

Still, Ebondo said that the slump wasn’t any reason for the Bakers to fret knowing that it holds a twice-to-beat edge in the quarterfinals.

“We have a game on Thursday and coach just wanted to rotate the players, especially if ever it happens that I get in foul trouble,” he said.

However, Ebondo said that Cafe France must pick up itself from these recent string of losses and shift its focus to the playoffs, where it’s still awaiting its quarterfinal date.

“We just have to forget about it and move on,” he said. “If we lose on Thursday, we will have a do-or-die, so now the competition is tough. We just have to forget about today and move on and focus on to the quarterfinals.”