MANILA, Philippines— Down but not out.
Despite being within a loss of another Finals defeat at the hands of rival San Beda, San Sebastian is far from giving up.
“We’re going to fight it out. There’s no other way but to get back,” said San Sebastian coach Topex Robinson.
Robinson was disappointed with how the officiating went but insisted that it’s not an excuse for the Stags to lose.
“I don’t want to make it (the officiating) as an excuse but they (referees) know better. That’s their job. They know where they went wrong or whatever it is that they called. It was the opposite of what we talked about. I’m not a referee, I’m not good at that but I know my basketball,” said Robinson, who got tossed out of the game after a non call on Calvin Abueva in the fourth quarter.
Abueva, who was crowned NCAA MVP, was held to just 12 points on an abysmal six-of-19 shooting from the field. The Beast, as he is fondly called, hauled down 16 rebounds but committed eight turnovers.
Starting center Ian Sangalang was also out of his element as he only shot 10 points.
“How can you play Ian Sangalang if he has two fouls in the first quarter, how can you play Calvin Abueva if he has three fouls. So I’m just going to do my math and I’m going to leave it at that,” said Robinson. “Again we can’t make that as an excuse not to play hard.”
Ronald Pascual, one of the Stags main men, also struggled, adding more woes to SSC. The flashy swingman did score 14 points, but his output hardly made an impact in the game.
Still, for all its troubles, San Sebastian was able to keep it close.
It was a defensive battle with both teams holding their own. The Stags, however, blinked first and lost their composure when it mattered the most.
“We just stopped defending. We stopped defending in the last part of the fourth,” Robinson said.
“[My players] played individually, they felt they could win it by themselves,” Robinson added.
San Sebastian ended up with only 12 assists compared to San Beda’s 21 and had a whopping 30 turnovers which the Red Lions took advantage of with 20 turnover points.
The lone bright spot for the Stags was their second unit led by Lyle Antipuesto’s 11 points.
“That’s why I’m telling my starters that the second group couldn’t win it for us. They need your help. We need to play as a team, we need to win as a team.”
“We’re going to fight back,” vowed the 36-year-old Robinson.