Sta. Lucia not rushing injured stars despite slump

MANILA, Philippines – Despite suffering back-to-back setbacks in the early stretch of the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference, Sta. Lucia head coach George Pascua still doesn’t want to force injured stars Chin Basas and MJ Philips to return to action.

Pascua said they don’t want to compromise the health of the two stalwarts so they will patiently wait for their medical clearance before deploying them back to action.

Basas is nursing ear and shoulder injuries while Philips has yet to recover from her Achilles tendon injury.

With them in sickbay, the Lady Realtors suffered a 20-25, 19-25, 23-25 loss to Smart before absorbing another painful 19-25, 20-25, 16-25 defeat to F2 Logistics.

Pascua said they want to have Basas and Philips back in the fold, but they don’t want to force the issue at this moment.

“It all depends on the clearance of the doctor,” said Pascua, refusing to give a clear timetable on the return of the prized Filipino-American spiker and the Far Eastern University hitter.

“Hopefully, we’re looking forward to have them play, but we don’t want to compromise their health. Having them in full strength is our top priority.”

In their previous game against the Cargo Movers, the Lady Realtors displayed vast improvement in their chemistry and cohesion on the floor.

Former Ateneo de Manila ace Jhoana Maraguinot provided the offense while skipper Pam Lastimosa and Jeanette Villareal chipped in significant numbers on both ends for Sta. Lucia, which obviously missed the scoring prowess of Philips.

And Pascua liked what he saw.

“There’s a big improvement compared to our first game,” said Pascua, the architect of Petron’s clean sweep of the All-Filipino in 2015.

“Right now, we’re lacking that endgame spunk. We’re hoping that somebody will step up in the endgame and lead the team to victory.”

“Hopefully by our next game against Foton, our level of intensity will improve. We’re almost there. We just have to work hard and raise our game a notch higher.”