La Salle coach Derrick Pumaren during a game against Adamson in the UAAP Season 85 men’s basketball tournament. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — A preseason favorite, La Salle has failed to live up to its expectations so far in the UAAP Season 85 men’s basketball tournament after a 3-4 record at the end of the first round of eliminations.
The Green Archers ended the opening round with a tough overtime loss to the Adamson Falcons, 86-84, on Saturday at Ynares Center in Antipolo as they fell into a three-way tie with Adamson and University of the East in fourth place.
La Salle coach Derrick Pumaren said admitted that his wards are not following their defensive strategy and playing inconsistent
“Well, we’re struggling right now. Until we play the way we should play, until we start playing defense, and not to try to outscore the other team, I think we will be struggling,” said Pumaren on Saturday after suffering their second straight loss.
“We can’t do that in the second round. We gave up a lot of fastbreak points, and a lot of second-chance points. We gotta do a better job defending. That’s what’s happening right now with the team. We’re not playing defense at all.”
La Salle fell short to defending champion University of the Philippines on opening day before bouncing back against University of Santo Tomas and upsetting its archrival Ateneo. But the Green Archers were back on the losing end after falling to the Red Warriors.
A win over Far Eastern University got La Salle back on track before losses to National University and Adamson capped its first-round campaign.
Heading into the second round, which begins next week, Pumaren wants the Green Archers to be consistent after a topsy-turvy performance in their first seven games.
“It’s a concern, but as I’ve said, in the second round, we just gotta gain momentum at the start. We just gotta play more consistent basketball, the La Salle basketball that we should be playing,” the veteran coach said. “We gotta take it one game at a time, quarter by quarter, possession by possession. We just have to work our way up.”
“The game still starts at the opening tip. We gotta play the game 40 minutes and that’s what we gotta do by the second round. We just gotta work our way up. We know we’re down there, but it’s not the end of the season for us. We have to make our move though because the second round will be the last chance for us,” he added.