UP Fighting Maroons’ Francis Lopez during a UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament game. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
Despite an unbeaten record in Season 87 of the UAAP men’s basketball tournament, University of the Philippines (UP) knows that this hot start is only a part of something bigger that it wants to achieve.
“All of us know that we have more to reach for, it’s still early,” Quentin Millora-Brown said, after the Fighting Maroons extended their winning streak to four with a 69-58 beatdown of winless Far Eastern U on Sunday at Mall of Asia Arena.
“This is only the fourth game. We have a lot more that we want to achieve this season,” he added. “So I think all of us are just trying to stay grounded and understand that this win is one out of the many that we wanna have.”
Millora-Brown helped UP come out of the gates strong for control. He finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds, a testament to his continued brilliance on both ends that certainly make the Maroons more formidable.
He starred against the hapless Tamaraws as the deep bench of coach Goldwin Monteverde executed the game plan and didn’t give Far Eastern the chance for an upset.
“Our game plan was to try to attack from the start—not [only] attack offensively, [but also] defensively,” Millora-Brown said. “And I think that we did that at the start, especially in the second quarter [by] holding them to seven (points).
“We really executed the defensive game plan which let us run out on the offense better, and I think that we need to focus on that second quarter and play more like that every game, every time.”
There is only one way for the Maroons to get closer to the goal they once got a taste of, and end, two consecutive seasons of bridesmaid finishes to different schools, and that is for UP to play with consistency, whether it’s up against formidable teams or struggling squads.
“Coach Gold always starts every practice by saying, ‘Be consistent today. It’s not really a matter of we need to have amazing days, it’s we needing to be consistent every day, bring the same energy, the same attention to details,’” the one-and-done forward said.
“I think that’s kind of the culture that we try to keep and maintain, and when guys fall a little bit back, we all try bringing him back to the huddle,” he added.
Francis Lopez was not among those who fell back as he top scored with 13 points.
JD Cagulangan and Harold Alarcon were also big in the win.
What has been helping the Maroons is having the same focus on the same goal.
“Everyone understands that we wanna win so that’s really where we all are, we wanna win, we wanna win big and we understand what it takes every day,” Millora-Brown went on. “So there’s not really any tension between players because there’s one goal in mind.” INQ