A respite from the game of basketball paid dividends for Johnedel Cardel and Columbian.
The Dyip put a halt to their three-game slide after surviving the Meralco Bolts, 86-85, as the PBA Philippine Cup resumed on Wednesday night at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Just minutes after the Dyip held off a last-gasp charge from the Bolts to seal the victory, Cardel, Columbian’s head coach, revealed that he gave his wards a four-day break while the PBA paused for the Fiba World Cup Asian qualifiers.
“I gave them four days off just to forget about basketball,” he said. “They played for four straight games … I feel like they were burned out.”
After a lethargic start, Columbian—led by its skipper Rashawn McCarthy—turned the game around in the second period, but spent a majority of the final half parrying Meralco rallies.
“We’re a young team. I feel like we never really got to recover from the losses we absorbed before the break,” Cardel said in Filipino. “Coming into this game, I told the guys to forget about the past six games. But also, never forget why we lost.”
Meralco’s Chris Newsome brought the Bolts within one with 38 seconds left to play. The Bolts then forced two sorry misses on the Dyip’s Jeepy Faundo to gain a shot at flipping the result.
But Baser Amer and Cliff Hodge missed a shot each as time expired.
Columbian improved to a 3-4 slate.
“As you guys know, we start our training camp early. For us to get away from the game a little bit, reset, refocus and regroup—we did a good job at that,” added McCarthy, who posted a career-best 30 points to go with eight rebounds and three assists.
In the second game, Phoenix Pulse survived a tight endgame finish to hold off NorthPort, 98-96, for its sixth win in seven games.