Guiao upbeat after impressive debut by Rain or Shine rookies

MANILA, Philippines – After rolling the dice in their consecutive draft picks in this season’s PBA Rookie Draft, Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao is happy with the newcomers’ debuts on Wednesday. 

The Elasto Painters had a winning start in the PBA Governors’ Cup Wednesday after obliterating the Blackwater Bossing, 110-97. 

While import Aaron Fuller towed Rain or Shine to the victory with a monster performance of 24 points and 19 rebounds, rookies Caelan Tiongson and Felix Lemetti came up big with double-digit performances. 

The former had 15 points and five rebounds in 20 minutes of play, while the latter had 11 markers, three boards and two dimes in almost 18 minutes of running time. 

After the game, Guiao lauded the performance of the newbies. 

“I am happy with the performance of the rookies. Caelan played well and Felix played well,” he told reporters in Filipino. 

The two players were taken in the first round of the PBA Draft as the seventh and eighth picks, respectively. 

“We took a gamble on Felix. We’re really happy with the way he is playing in practice. We did not know a lot about him before he applied in the draft. We saw him a couple of times in practice and we said we took a gamble with him in the first round. No regrets,” he said. 

“Caelan, we know how he plays. The only apprehension about Caelan’s game was that he was not playing for the last two years. He retired, actually. So he’s just coming off retirement. Maybe that’s one reason he fell in the draft, but we took a chance on him and it’s paying off really well,” he added. 

Guiao bared that the 32-year-old Tiongson had fever and diarrhea earlier in the day, and he was worried that the big man would be unable to play.

“I was a little worried about Caelan, he called in sick this morning… I was worried that he might not play, but he did,” he bared. 

Aside from the two, Guiao also tipped his hat to the debuting Luis Villegas, who was picked third overall in last season’s draft, but had to sit out the entire PBA Season 48 as he had to recover from an injury. 

The 6-foot-8 big man had four points and a steal in almost five minutes of play. He made his lone attempt from beyond the arc and split his free throws. 

“For the short time that Luis played, he played well although he’s still not 100% obviously. But we just want to give him the feel of the game, we just wanted him to be able to acclimatize,” the coach stressed. 

“He did not play for a whole year, so I think these opportunities will help him give his confidence back and also get back to his usual game,” he added. 

“As I said, Luis is getting better every day, he’s going to complement us with his outside shooting. He’s a very high IQ player, he’s got the size to help us out in the middle so it’s going really well for us.”