UAAP: Jarin chooses to look at positives despite NU’s heartbreaking start
MANILA, Philippines—No other team in the UAAP Season 82 men’s basketball tournament has experienced a crueler fate so far than National University.
The Bulldogs have lost both of their games by an average of a point and both ending in heartbreak.
The latest, an 83-82 defeat to De La Salle, featured a furious 16-1 run from NU only to end in a baseline jumper from Kurt Lojera.
But despite the early sorrow for the Bulldogs, NU head coach Jamike Jarin would rather look on the brighter side.
“If you look at the game, there are better things to be thankful for than to be sorry for,” said Jarin Wednesday. “They fought tooth and nail, we’ll go focus on to the next game, but we fought, we stayed together, and I’m just happy.”
The Bulldogs were down 80-66 in the fourth before their rabid rally got them the 82-81 lead on Shaun Ildefonso’s three-pointer with 28.2 seconds to play.
Aljun Melecio, however, found Lojera on a quick play for the game-winning jump shot with 14.9 seconds left.
NU still had a chance with that much time left but a scramble on the ball saw all remaining seconds tick away and a late kickball was ruled to have happened at the end of the buzzer.
In the season opener, Adamson’s Lenda Douanga’s buzzer-beating three-pointer crushed the Bulldogs, 84-83.
Jarins said the season’s just started and his hoping the breaks eventually fall their way.
“We have to keep on working hard, and also we still got 12 games. We’re 0-2 right now but it could’ve been 2-0,” said Jarin. “If you look at it, we’re one rebound away from getting over. We’re going to continue to grind it out.”
“I believe in this group of young men, and we’ll continue to fight and get better.”
