Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
It’s the point of the tournament when teams have started weighing their chances for a Final Four spot, especially with a very tight contest at the upper half of the standings of UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament.
But De La Salle University, which currently sits in the third spot of the standings with Far Eastern University with a 5-4 card was quick to say it does not want to think about the playoffs just yet.
La Salle head coach Louie Gonzalez said the Green Archers’ loss to Adamson on Saturday is not a cause of concern as the team takes one game at a time, adding, it’s just one of those “ordinary games.”
“No, it’s not really red flag,” said Gonzalez.
“When we move out from this dugout, we’re already focused on our next game which is FEU,” he said in Filipino. “Our goal is not only this [to win]. I know this is a setback, but we will learn from this.”
“It’s just a normal game. We did not think about that after two years, we lost to Adamson,” Aljun Melecio also pointed out in Filipino.
The Green Archers failed to buck a slow start in their 50-57 defeat to the Soaring Falcons, and were limited to just two points at the end of the first quarter after missing their first 19 attempts from the field.
“I tried to control them. They started to veer away because our shots just weren’t falling. I told them to just keep grinding,” the first-year head coach added. “I told them not to give up.”
Though, they showed fight behind the tremendous offensive effort of Melecio to trim the deficit to four points, 50-46, the Falcons regained control with their defense in the final quarter.
“We will have to master doing the small details like our timing.”
READ: UAAP: Pumaren, Adamson get back at La Salle