Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
As far as sports are concerned, moral victories never appear on a stat sheet.
But for University of Santo Tomas head coach Boy Sablan, those intangible moments would yield something concrete soon enough.
UST may have lost to Ateneo, 94-84, in a frustrating fashion Wednesday to dig a deeper hole at 0-5, but coach Boy Sablan liked what he saw from his wards.
The Growling Tigers were in a 22-point hole, 69-47, in the third quarter but managed to run back in the fourth and cut the deficit to 81-80 before the Blue Eagles closed the game on a 13-3 run.
“What they did, coming back from a 22-point, anyone will surely get a huge confidence boost from what happened,” said Sablan in Filipino.
“Our first win is upon us. The whole team is praying and hoping that the next games would be a different round for us.”
Although UST did not erase the deficit in one defining run, the Growling Tigers did outscore the Blue Eagles 33-12 from the middle of the third to midway through the fourth.
This was a small victory for Sablan, who sees it as the building block heading into the team’s breakthrough win in the season.
“I’m happy with my team because even when we were down big, we still fought hard and in the end we just lost steam,” said Sablan. “We have five losses but we kept fighting. This is the hardest game because we fought back from 22 down to just one.”
“That first win will come, I don’t know when but it will come at the right time.”