Adamson Falcons’ Joshua Yerro. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
Adamson has been repeatedly proving that it should be included in the top-four discussions of the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament.
But for coach Nash Racela, the belief should be coming from the Soaring Falcons.
“I think the belief of other people in us should not really matter to us,” Racela said after the Falcons turned the tables on National University, 60-58, on Wednesday night. “My question to them is always, ‘Do you believe [in yourselves]?’ because that’s the most important thing.”
“Whatever other people might think, the important thing is that we, within our circle, really believe that it’s doable so hopefully we, as a group, slowly start to believe that we could achieve the nice things this season,” he added.
That absence of doubt was evident in Joshua Yerro, who flashed nerves of steel to drain a game-winner with 0.3 seconds left to bail out the Falcons.
He knows that the best time to soar, like what he did when he tipped the ball off an alley-oop inbound pass by John Calisay in the dying seconds, for the Falcons is now.
“As a senior in his last year, I won’t allow us and myself to have a bad exit,” Yerro, who finished with 11 points, five rebounds and three steals, told the Inquirer in Filipino. “We are just executing the instructions of the coaches and following their system so we have a good result in our games.”
“We still believe even though many people are saying that we are a No. 8 team,” he added, laughing.
The facts were clear to the graduating shooting guard: the game was tied at 58-all, his teammates were already tired from erasing the deficit they faced earlier and that they couldn’t let the game go past regulation.
Jitters were no longer in the picture.
“I also didn’t expect the play going to me because we had shooters like Monty [Montebon] and Matty [Erolon] so I was surprised that coach Gilbert [Lao] drew the play for me and that he trusted me,” Yerro recalled. “Calisay and I were entering the court at the same time after coach Gilbert strategized so I told Calisay ‘Bai, just believe and I will shoot it.’”
“It was very clear instruction from coach Gilbert, even to Calisay, that ‘Even if you don’t see him (Yerro) just throw the ball, take your chances,’ and he did, so luckily Wawa (Yerro’s nickname) appeared out of nowhere,” Racela added.