Adamson beat University of the East convincingly but head coach Franz Pumaren expressed his displeasure with how the Falcons approached the game.
Pumaren felt his players came into the game thinking the Red Warriors aren’t going to put up a fight and it showed as the Falcons found themselves behind in the second quarter.
That’s when Pumaren sued for a timeout to remind his players about what’s in front of them.
“The problem was they thought it’s just going to be a walk in the park after watching UE’s game against UP thinking it’s gonna be easy,” Pumaren said after Adamson’s 90-76 victory.
“I just reminded them during the huddle in the second half that you can probably think that way if we’re playing against only four guys but we’re still playing against five guys so we cannot take them lightly,” he added. “We cannot feel that they’re just going to give the game to us.”
Fortunately for the Pumaren, the Falcons got their acts together midway through the second quarter behind Jerrick Ahanmisi’s hot hand.
Ahanmisi took charge and scored eight straight points to spark a 17-4 blast.
Then, it was Sean Manganti’s turn to lead Adamson in the third quarter en route to his best offensive game in the UAAP with 27 points. Ahanmisi finished with 17 points.
“I guess they’re accepting their respective roles as leaders. Prior to the opening, I sat with them and I mentioned their roles. I told them the young guys will go with them so they have to lead not only by scoring but also by example,” Pumaren said of Ahanmisi and Manganti.
“At least we were able to regroup and go back to our senses that we’re not that good to be thinking that way. We’re successful because we stay within the system, we play as a team and we defend as a team.”