Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Adamson University’s trajectory in the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament just transformed from an ascending line to a falling parabola.
The Soaring Falcons started out the season on a five-game winning streak but have since staggered to two straight losses, the last of which was a 79-78 heartbreak at the hands of De La Salle.
Adamson is now stuck in a three-way with Ateneo and Far Eastern University with 5-2 records but forward Sean Manganti said it was their overtime loss against the Green Archers that really struck a chord.
“I think there were a lot of things in the game that we’ve done that were wrong,” said Manganti Saturday at Mall of Asia Arena. “We shot ourselves in the foot, we lost that game. La Salle didn’t beat us, we beat ourselves.”
The Falcons looked to have the game in order after taking a 56-49 lead with less than three minutes left in the fourth quarter but they allowed the Green Archers to come back and send the game into overtime after Aljun Melecio’s floater with 13.6 seconds left.
Once overtime rolled in, it was La Salle that immediately took control, taking a 75-67 lead after another one of Melecio’s baskets with 1:06 remaining.
Manganti, who had 23 points, seven rebounds, and four assists, said it all boiled down to his team’s failure to execute on both ends.
“We couldn’t execute in the end and we couldn’t defend,” said Manganti.
The loss, which effectively erased Adamson’s early invincibility, almost seemed to be a personal matter for the Soaring Falcons that they vowed to defeat La Salle in the second round of the tournament.
“I just want to beat them the next time we play them,” said Jerrick Ahanmisi, who had 27 points and seven rebounds. “We just got to prepare for it and do everything we can in the next round.”
“I want to beat them so bad, this one hurts but we got to take it like any other game, take it one game at a time, we’re not going to change our mentality,” said Manganti.