MANILA, Philippines - National University coach Eric Altamirano urges his Bulldogs to maintain a high level of intensity against rookie-laden yet dangerous Adamson when they gun for the solo lead today in the UAAP Season 77 men’s basketball tourney at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Altamirano, whose charges share top view with Ateneo with 3-1, has seen how the Falcons (0-3) can pose a major threat to the contenders when over the weekend they stretched Santo Tomas to the limit before yielding a thin 49-50 setback.
“We can’t be complacent against Adamson,” said the NU mentor of their upset-conscious opponent in the 4 p.m. setto. “They’re a young team and yet we saw they can keep up with a veteran team like UST. So we have to prepare and bring our A-game against Adamson.”
In the 2 p.m. opener, Far Eastern U and University of the East gun for their fourth wins in five starts.
The Bulldogs are back in the groove after beating erstwhile undefeated Ateneo, 64-60, last July 26. Newbies Paol Javelona and Rev Dupitado played big in the stretch to fill-in for veteran Gelo Alolino’s meager six-point, two-assist output.
NU held Ateneo to a 31 percent field goal shooting, clamping down on league top scorer Kiefer Ravena in the second half to pull the win off.
“Hindi naman kami talaga (We’re not really an) offensive team so we just rely on sheer team defense,” said Altamirano, whose team lost a lot of firepower when Bobby Ray Parks,Jr. left.
After losing their first two assignments by blowouts, the Falcons showed they could be a pesky opponent and nearly dropped the axe on the Tigers. Even with veteran Don Trollano serving suspension, AdU took it to UST and led by as many as nine points but bungled the opportunity in the fourth period, where they scored only four points.
“UST did not win the game. We gave it to them,” AdU coach Kenneth Duremdes.
He nonetheless saw a silver lining in the close loss.
““We’re happy that the boys are responding now to what we’re doing,” he said.”They’re starting to believe in the system and the improvement that we’re looking from them is, kahit papaano, unti-unti andoon na (beginning to show).”
The third-running Tams and the Warriors engage in a battle of squads with contrasting fortunes in their last games. FEU nipped University of the Philippines, 85-71, while UE blew a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter in a numbing 58-60 setback to La Salle.
FEU coach Nash Racela is wary about UE’s imports Charles Mammie and Moustapha Arafat.
“I consider them super imports and they’ve been supported by the locals plus the leadership of (Roi) Sumang so medyo mabigat para sa amin (UE will be a tough assignment for us),” said Racela.
Then there’s the redemption factor that will come into play for the Warriors following their sorry loss.