Determination. Heart. And a desire to uphold the school’s belief that it can still win a championship with an all-Filipino lineup.
These were the key factors boxing’s only eight-division world champion, Manny Pacquiao, cited after the Letran Knights defied tremendous odds in taming the San Beda Red Lions, 94-90, last week to move within another win of ruling the NCAA Season 91 basketball tournament.
Pacquiao, who committed his full support for the Knights before the season started, conveniently avoided the role he played in the swashbuckling victory.
But Letran coach Aldin Ayo put things in their proper perspective when he said the boxing champion inspired the Knights no end when he joined them for the first time before the game and then urged them to focus on the three things they need to win.
“When he entered the dugout, I saw the faces of the players light up. They felt elated seeing him,” said Ayo, a rookie coach who was among the unsung members of Letran’s title-winning teams in 1998 and 1999.
Pacquiao boosted the Knights’ morale even more by joining the players on the bench throughout the game.
It was a gesture that underscored Manny’s support for a team that failed to even reach the Final Four last season and remained steadfast in fielding homegrown players while the rest of the opposition recruited foreign reinforcements, including Nigerian center Allwell Oraeme, who captured MVP and Rookie of the Year this season while playing for Mapua.
The Lions, seeking a record sixth straight title in their 10th consecutive trip to the finals behind Nigerian Ola Adeogun, and their pro-bound stars Amer Baser and Art de la Cruz, fought fiercely, rallying from 10 points down to grab the lead at the half, 41-39, and wiping out a 58-52 Letran lead to regain the upper hand at 62-60 going into the last quarter.
But the Knights paraded an unstoppable shining Knight in Kevin Racal, whose career- and season-high 28-point effort in the grinding pressure of a title clash was simply spectacular.
Racal, on his last season with Letran along with 5-foot-6 spitfire Mark Cruz, delivered 14 points in the last quarter, his last basket on a followup that gave the Knights a crucial 89-85 lead with 40.3 seconds left.
The Knights also found another sharp gunner in Rey Nambatac, who fired 18 points, including successive treys in a torrid shooting duel with the Lions in one stretch in the closing minutes.
Cruz added 17, with his three free throws in the dying seconds putting the game away for Letran.
The three Letran stars combined for 63 points.
Adeogun led San Beda with 23, with Amer struggling with eight points and Dela Cruz finishing with seven.
Amer was the Finals MVP in 2012 and Dela Cruz duplicated the feat in 2013 as the Lions kept their title both times over the Knights in three games.
“We will celebrate this [win],” Ayo said “but we’ll be back tomorrow to prepare for the second game of the best-of-three series.
It’s obviously far from over for San Beda, whose coach, Jamike Jarin, took the blame for the loss, saying he was outwitted by his fellow rookie bench rival.
The lion may have slept, as the song goes, in Game 1, but it’s sure to wake up the next time around.