MANILA, Philippines — Despite losing to fierce rival San Beda in a game where Letran had the chance to lock up first place, Knights head coach Caloy Garcia didn’t find any reasons to fret Monday night.
Instead, Garcia was all smiles as he spoke with the media just moments after Letran took a 72-76 setback in overtime.
“Actually, I’m happy with the way we played today,” Garcia said. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of. We already achieved our goal to get the twice-to-beat so we just have to wait who we play in the Final Four.”
“The nice thing about it is we know that we can compete against probably the strongest team in the league. The important thing for me is for us to make it to the finals,” Garcia added.
Garcia opted to focus on the positive things his players did and chose to just take the mistakes as lessons learned.
“We were really relaxed,” Garcia said. “We have to learn to play more cohesive. There were some parts of the game where we could’ve just melted the clock and instead we took quick shots.”
Had Letran won, it would’ve secured the top seeding in the semifinals but Garcia has more important things in mind than just finishing in first place as his team sets its sights on the Final Four.
“From the beginning, nobody even said that we’re going to make it to the final four, some even had us going as far as sixth or seventh but my players proved everybody wrong,” Garcia said.