MANILA, Philippines - Three days after surviving a near meltdown against Ateneo, University of the East coach Boyzie Zamar hopes his Red Warriors have already gotten the message – they have to be mentally prepared to grind it out for the whole 40 minutes.
“It’s all about mental toughness; yun ang wala sa players namin (that’s what our players lack),†Zamar rued after the Warriors’ 72-68 escape act over Ateneo last Wednesday to improve to 2-3 in the UAAP Season 76 men’s basketball tournament.
Zamar expects another tough outing at 2 p.m. today against La Salle (2-2) at the MOA Arena, stressing the need for maturity both on offense and defense.
“This is a crucial week for us. We survived the flood coming from Ateneo and now we have to weather the storm of La Salle. We have to be more steady going up against a very methodical and organized team like La Salle,†said Zamar.
The Archers are aching to bounce back after a numbing 79-83 overtime loss to Far Eastern U, in which they blew a 13-point lead in the last 2:30 of regulation and fell into a spate of costly flubbed charities and errors in overtime.
“My failures are my motivation,†Jeron Teng said on Twitter account. “We lost as a team, we will bounce back again as a team!â€
Stymied the last around, National U also seeks to get back in the 4 p.m. matchup against Adamson, another team licking its wounds from a previous setback.
NU bowed to unbeaten pacesetter Far Eastern U, 83-87, last Wednesday in a match where they had to frantically charge back from 20 points down. But they ran out of time in their bid to grab a share of the lead and dropped to third instead.
“We had a bad start. They (Tams) shot well – 51 percent from the three and, overall, 44 percent. We became more aggressive in the second half, kaya lang, ang laki na ng hinabol (thing was, we were behind by so much). We could not keep up… it was too late,†NU coach Eric Altamirano told the ABS-CBN News website.
“It’s just a learning experience that we can’t start slow,†Bobby Ray Parks Jr., said for his part. “We just got to win our next couple of games, and we’re back in business.â€
The Falcons are also smarting from a 59-71 loss to the Eagles, becoming the defending five-peat champions’ lone victim thus far.
Adamson coach Leo Austria, who rued his wards’ lack of focus and hustle in that loss to Ateneo, hopes his wards would learn from that debacle and be wiser against the Bulldogs.
Falcons slotman Ingrid Sewa had re-injured his right shoulder (strain) last time but the injury is not expected to force him out of their next games, said Austria.