Turnovers unseat Knights vs Bombers

MANILA, Philippines -- Letran's 29 turnovers proved to be the deciding factor in their 85-79 overtime loss to the JRU Heavy Bombers in their opening game of the 99th NCAA men's basketball season, Knights head coach Rensy Bajar said.

In an interview with reporters after the game, Bajar said their turnovers proved to be too costly.

JRU finished the game with 35 points off turnovers.

“Actually, the game was okay overall, but we had too many turnovers. We had a lot of turnovers, 29, and it affected us,” Bajar said.

He said that while the team was able to follow their game plan defensively, they were not able to protect the ball as much as they wanted to.

Guard Kurt Reyson had the most turnovers for Letran with seven. Kobe Monje had six errors.

JRU’s defense on Reyson led to him committing that many turnovers, Bajar said.

This also led to Reyson being benched toward the end of the tight overtime game.

“Kurt could not get his timing. At the same time, Deo [Cuajao] was playing well so we gave Deo a chance. The defense concentrated at Kurt, so he had seven turnovers,” the coach said.

Cuajao finished with 12 points, all from 3-point land, including a booming trey that sent the game to overtime.

“At the same time, the tempo of the game, when [Reyson] is out of the game, is when we have runs. So when he is inside, the defense is concentrated on him. So, we could not have continuity,” he added.

Reyson finished with 18 points, six rebounds and four assists.

While it looked like he stuffed the sheet, he also had seven turnovers and shot 3-of-14 from the field. Most of his points came from the free throw line.

He also ended the game -11.