San Beda’s Jacob Cortez.-NCAA PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—San Beda’s Jacob Cortez may have been the leading scorer in the Red Lions’ win over Emilio Aguinaldo College in the NCAA Season 99 men’s basketball tournament but he chose to focus on other things.
Cortez scored a team-high 17 points but the shifty guard was more impressed to see that he only tallied one turnover in the 86-72 victory on Sunday.
“I don’t see it points-wise but I did a good job not turning the ball over. Credit to my other teammates, they were ready to play today. They were making shots, grabbing rebounds and playing well today,” said Cortez.
The former University of Santo Tomas cager had every right to be surprised with his one-turnover outing after averaging 2.4 miscues after the first round.
Thankfully for the Red Lions, though, Cortez more than made up for it with his scoring abilities as he ended up as the league’s second best scorer after the first half of eliminations with 15.44 markers per game.
Coach Yuri Escueta, however, acknowledged that with Cortez’s success on the offensive end, teams will go the extra mile to contain the young gun.
Fortunately for the top coach, he knows that Cortez will “make the right plays” in order to push San Beda to the top.
“With our team and the schemes against Jacob, it (wins) will depend on what the defense will do against us. Teams make it hard for Jacob offensively so of course, he’s not going to force his shots.”
“Jacob knows to make the right plays. He stayed composed and focused in the second half. He just let the game come to him and he didn’t force it. The talent will surely come out if it’s like that.”
Thanks to Cortez’s heroics in the first round, San Beda holds a 7-2 record just a game behind league leader Mapua.