Robin drains seven treys as Generals rally

Given the license to shoot, Ralph Robin fired away with impunity and took Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC) along for the ride as the Generals take a winning feeling going into a weeklong respite.

The Generals hope to build on that while on a break as their next assignment in Season 97 of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament will be against the defending champion and so far unbeaten Letran Knights.

“My coach told me not to hesitate and just keep on taking shots. It gave me confidence and I was able shoot those threes,” said Robin in Filipino after the Generals repulsed the San Sebastian College Stags, 63-60, on Wednesday at the La Salle Greenhills gym.

Robin dropped 15 of his season-high 27 points in the final nine minutes. He hit a total of seven threes that boosted the second consecutive victory of the Generals, their third overall in six games.

They will face the Knights a week from now, a long rest that the Generals see as an opportunity to come up with a decent game plan against the stampeding champions.

“Our players have matured, we were able to figure out how to close games properly,” said EAC coach Oliver Bunyi, a product of Letran high school. “We must have that kind of consistency against Letran.”

Two days off

In preparation for that, EAC takes a two-day Lenten break and resumes practice on Saturday all the way to the Letran face-off.

The Knights, meanwhile, will be shooting for their fifth straight win on Sunday against Lyceum.

“I give the credit to my players, they have composure and really gave their all in defense that resulted in a win,” said Bunyi.

Chasing the Stags ferociously right from the get-go, the Generals clamped down on San Sebastian in the final seven minutes before Robin took out the enemy with back-to-back conversions from beyond the arc.

The Stags had the luxury of forging ahead by double digits several times before Robin struck that pair of consecutive threes that finally installed the Generals in front, 59-56, 1:11 remaining.