Columbian rues lack of ‘closer’ as it drops to 0-3 in PBA Governors’ Cup

Just when it looked like Columbian was headed to its first win in the 2018 PBA Governors’ Cup, the fourth quarter happened.

The Dyip were giving the Road Warriors everything they could handle but simply sputtered in the endgame as NLEX showed its class.

NLEX limited the Dyip to a paltry 6-of-22 shooting in the fourth period en route to a 116-104 victory Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Both head coach John Edel Cardel and top-performing local Jerramy King admitted that closing out games has been their weakness.

“We really struggled, we don’t have a leader when it comes to winning time,” said Cardel in Filipino. “We don’t have someone who can orchestrate the offense, everyone was forcing his shots, there was no play called.”

For King, who finished with 22 points and seven rebounds, one of the things that the Dyip lacked was a bona fide closer.

“We can’t close a game and this is our third game in a row,” said King whose team dropped to 0-3. “We’re coming off a loss but just don’t have it right now, we don’t have that finisher in the fourth.”

NLEX  opened the fourth on a 11-0 run to take a 102-89 lead and although the Dyip managed to cut it down to five, 107-102, JR Quiñahan was able to respond for the Road Warriors.

Quiñahan hit two big three-pointers to give NLEX a 116-104 buffer with 55.3 seconds left, showing what Columbian didn’t have this conference—a closer.

Cardel said the team would just have to live with what happened and try to bounce back in their coming games.

“I’ve been down before and of course there are still many games remaining and I’m just setting my mind as a coach and I’ll just tell them my experiences so they won’t be too hard on themselves,” said Cardel in Filipino.