Red Lions learn the hard way against the Pirates

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net

For coach Boyet Fernandez, San Beda’s 96-91 defeat to Lyceum on Friday should be a huge eye-opener that the Red Lions’ title retention bid this NCAA Season 93 won’t be a cakewalk.

“There are very strong teams ahead of us. We know that they’re looking at us, but as I’ve said, there are so many teams that has gotten stronger right now,” he said.

With CJ Perez leading the fight, the Pirates sent the Red Lions crashing back to earth as the former delivered on their hype to stun the defending champions.

San Beda fell into Lyceum’s trap of letting Robert Bolick do everything for the squad and Fernandez said that supporting cast must do a better job of executing.

“I know they wanted Bolick to attack the basket, so for us, we really have to rotate the ball,” said the mentor.

“We had 20 assists, it’s just a matter of making the shots for the other guys. We have to take those open shots when Bolick gives up the ball.”

The veteran mentor, though, believes that the Red Lions can move on from the humbling loss as they learned the hard way that games will be won on the defensive end.

“We know that Lyceum is a really good team. Giving up 96 points is not our defense, so if we want to beat LPU, we can’t play them offense-on-offense. We have to make stops. They really scored at will and I take the blame for that,” he said.

San Beda will next brace for St. Benilde on Tuesday.