ANTIPOLO—University of Santo Tomas’ chances for the Final Four is still within arm’s length and the team isn’t allowing itself to sulk in loneliness despite a horrible 110-69 loss to De La Salle in the second round of the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament.
The Growling Tigers dropped to a 5-6 record, dancing between the fourth to sixth spots, after their 41-point loss but rookie CJ Cansino said the team is eager to move on from the devastating defeat and prepare them for a possible semifinal entry.
READ: La Salle boosts Final Four bid, dumps UST by 41 points
“We will bounce back,” said Cansino Saturday at Ynares Center here. “We will watch what we did wrong and what didn’t do. We will move on and we will work a hundred percent to get back.”
An area of concern for UST was its sponge-like defense that La Salle exploited to the tune of a 53 percent shooting from the field, 38-of-71, including 15-of-27 from three-point area.
And as the Green Archers found their marks, the Growling Tigers failed to find their stride.
UST got colder than the mountain air and tallied a 20-of-60 shooting mark and also turned the ball over 23 times allowing the Green Archers to score 28 points off those mistakes.
La Salle also unleashed a bevy of arrows in the third when it outscored UST, 34-9, to build an 84-40 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
“I think they played their A-game and what happened to us is we couldn’t shoot,” said Cansino, who had 14 points and nine rebounds. “La Salle just changes things up easily. We have to figure out what went wrong on our part.”