NLEX remained winless in the 2019 PBA Philippine Cup after dropping its third straight game following a loss to TNT on Wednesday night.
But it would take worse than a 0-3 start to dampen head coach Yeng Guiao’s hopes and confidence in his team.
“It’s still early. I’m not losing hope. I feel that we’ll be okay if we gain momentum,” Guiao told reporters after an 85-80 loss.
Guiao said the Road Warriors just need to pick up one win to turn their fortunes around.
“We’re focusing on getting just our first win. We hope we can do that this Sunday. Then, we have a one week break. We’ll regroup after that but we need to break through on Sunday,” he said.
Guiao added NLEX’s sloppy play coupled with the “bad officiating” made it doubly hard for the Road Warriors to win against TNT.
The national team mentor said the referees missed “obvious fouls” committed against his players.
“They’re missing the obvious. It’s obvious that they kept on missing. I cannot understand that. There is something wrong with that,” he said.
The frustration mounted for Guiao in the third quarter where he got tossed after incurring two technical fouls at the 4:22 mark.
“I’m just frustrated. We’re already struggling, the officiating was bad, you’ll really get frustrated about it,” said Guiao, whose squad shot just 35 percent from the field and committed 26 turnovers.
NLEX aims for its first victory against Columbian on Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.