University of the Philippines’ first-round campaign in the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament ended in a disaster.
After the UP Fighting Maroons finally strung together their first streak after a tight win over National University last Sunday, they were sent crashing back to earth by University of Santo Tomas three days after.
The Maroons never had a chance at the win after the Growling Tigers gave them a thorough 86-72 beating Wednesday.
READ: UAAP: UST sends UP crashing for second straight win
The loss sent UP to a subpar record of 3-4, just a two-win improvement from when Perasol said his team was a must-win situation.
Perasol rued the lack of collective effort from his team, which was hyped to make it to the Final Four this year with the addition of Bright Akhuetie.
“I just feel we don’t have that single mindset and a single-mindedness that you know in yourselves that when you’re one single unit you can go through this predicament together,” said Perasol who still kept faith despite his team’s poor standing.
READ: UP holds off NU for share of 4th spot
The affable mentor, though, knows that his team knows how to win and it’s just a matter of playing together.
“I really feel we have what it takes to win but it’s we’re still scattered. We hope we have time to put things together in due time so we can get the goals.”
Against the Growling Tigers, UP never experienced the lead after the Maroon immediately got shell-shocked and fell to an 8-0 hole.
READ: Down 1-3, UP needs to start winning for a shot at Final 4
The Growling Tigers, who are also trying to get something going midway into the season, took a 76-46 lead heading into the fourth and was never really threatened despite a brief comeback from UP in the winding minutes.
“They know they have to do it together, but we’re still trying to figure out how to do that and it’s just unfortunate because we have what it takes to fight,” said Perasol, whose Fighting Maroons are tied with UST at the fifth spot.
“This is part of learning together, getting through adversity together, but we have to hurry up.”