Winless start hasn’t diminished Ildefonso’s belief in Bulldogs’ Final 4 bid

MANILA, Philippines—National University hasn’t had the best of starts in the UAAP Season 82 men’s basketball tournament, but that hasn’t stopped Shaun Ildefonso for claiming lofty goals for his team.

The Bulldogs are at the seventh seed with a 0-2 card after tight losses to Adamson University and De La Salle, but they still have 12 games to right their course and make a case as one of the best teams in the league.

Ildefonso said he’s confident the Bulldogs will make the Final Four and it’s up to them to keep that confidence up.

“We still have 12 games left, and there’s no reason to give up now because I really believe we’re going to make the Final Four,” said Ildefonso, who finished with a career-high 26 points in the 83-82 loss to the Green Archers.

“We’ll start off with a lot of energy because we really had a bad start in this game.”

The Bulldogs trailed 22-12 at the end of the first quarter and that 10-point deficit stood until the finish of the third period when they were behind 67-57.

La Salle even erected an 80-66 lead midway through the fourth but the Bulldogs went on a 16-1 run to take the 82-81 lead after Ildefonso’s three-pointer with 28.2 seconds left.

That lead, though, stood for mere seconds after Aljun Melecio found Kurt Lojera for the Green Archers’ final shot with 14.9 seconds to play.

The loss wasn’t NU’s first heartbreak this season with the Bulldogs also losing to the Soaring Falcons 84-83 on Lena Douanga’s improbable buzzer-beating three-pointer.

Ildefonso, and the Bulldogs can get their first win in the tournament against University of Santo Tomas, which has been the surprise of the season so far.

The Growling Tigers are coming off a narrow 71-70 defeat to defending champion Ateneo.

“UST really has its groove and we didn’t expect that they would be playing this well,” said Ildefonso. “We’ll prepare for UST and hopefully things will fall into place.”