INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — La Salle and University of Santo Tomas hope for a quick rebound after the two finalists in last season’s tournament got their UAAP campaigns off to a rough start last weekend.
“It’s a test of our character—how we can bounce back from a loss,” said La Salle coach Juno Sauler.
The consensus preseason favorite, the defending champion Green Archers blew a double-digit advantage and absorbed a 77-82 upset loss to Far Eastern University as the men’s basketball tournament got going last Saturday.
Just as unexpected was the blowout loss of UST to National University, 40-59. The Growling Tigers were still tabbed as contenders despite the departure of ace guard Jeric Teng and coach Pido Jarencio.
“Sarili namin ang naging problema (The problem was internal),” said new UST coach Bong dela Cruz. “Maybe there was overconfidence. But we already talked that we’ll bounce back.”
Both the Archers and the Tigers, though, will try to avoid dropping to a 0-2 hole against two teams that got a huge confidence boost from their blowout wins.
The Tigers will tackle University of the East on Wednesday, just four days after the Warriors carved out a 28-point rout of the University of the Philippines, 87-59.
Next Sunday, the Archers will face the Ateneo Blue Eagles, their fierce rival who will ride the momentum of their 22-point ripping of Adamson, 79-57.
“Lots of lessons to be learned,” said Sauler, noting the Archers’ poor shooting and crucial endgame turnovers in their first game. “We had open shots. But it boiled down to who made the shots.”
While the Archers came close to winning, the Tigers looked out of it by the third quarter with their key players, led by Kevin Ferrer, all misfiring.
The Tigers shot a terrible 24 percent from the field, posted one of the league’s lowest scores in the past decade with a measly 40 points and committed the most turnovers in the last three seasons with a whopping 26.
“Our system wasn’t there,” said Dela Cruz. “We had problems with our offense.”