Down 1-3, UP needs to start winning for a shot at Final 4

It’s just midway through the first round of the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament but Bo Perasol is already counting the games University of the Philippines needs to win in order to survive.

The Fighting Maroons dropped to 1-3 after their heartbreaking 69-68 loss to Adamson University and Perasol said they need to start to stringing up a win streak if they want to make it to the next round.

“We’re actually counting, we need to get the wins,” said Perasol Wednesday at Filoil Flying V Centre. We need to get the wins in order for us to have a chance [at the Final Four].”

“We have to win at least eight and you also have to look into who you’re going to match up against.”

UP, which went into the riding high expectations for a Final Four stint, sits at the seventh seed with only winless University of the East below it.

The Fighting Maroons will still face De La Salle, National University, and University of Santo Tomas in the remainder of the first round.

Perasol said the gut-wrenching winner that Sean Manganti threw up against them was doubly painful since they are fighting for their lives as opposed to the Soaring Falcons who are undefeated in four games.

“It was very painful especially when you want to win, you want to win because you want to bounce back,” said Perasol.

“You just have to be strong for the players and you need to explain to them that these things happen in life, we need to make sure that everything will make us better, make us stronger.”