The five-time defending NCAA champions have their backs against the wall.
In losing Game One of the NCAA Seniors Basketball Finals to the Letran Knights last Friday, the San Beda College Red Lions are in a predicament they last faced six seasons ago when they lost to the San Sebastian Golden Stags.
First year San Beda head coach Jamike Jarin took all the blame in the loss in saying, “I coached badly today, it’s my fault. That’s why we lost, I coached bad.” He further expounded it by disclosing that he failed to prepare his lads to the pressure defense Letran utilizes. “I failed to prepare them against Letran. We had too many turnovers and we weren’t able to execute properly. I failed to coach the right way today.”
Jarin was a cavalier in taking the blame for the loss that saw two of his seniors struggle. Art Dela Cruz only managed to put up 7 points and 5 rebounds in 24 minutes of action, while Baser Amer only had 8 points but dished out 10 assists. “Well you have to give credit to Letran but again I failed to prepare these you boys for Game One,” he said about the struggles of two the brightest stars in collegiate basketball.
The rookie head coach attributed the struggles of Dela Cruz and Amer to the long grind of the season and the law of averages. “Siyempre, players also play bad. People are used to seeing their big numbers and its been a long season,” he remarked. But he knows the two veterans will bounce back one way or the other. “We just have to gather our senses as a team. They actually had good games but na-magnify lang yan since we lost. We lost by just four points. If we won, Baser’s ten assists would have been big. Six rebounds will also be big for Art.”
For Game Two, Jarin knows that the team needs to handle the ball better as the team was forced to commit a whopping 29 turnovers that led to 25 turnover points. “We need to take care of the ball better,” he said. “We just need to play smarter. There were a couple of plays that cost us the lead or break our momentum. Mga little things pag dinikit mo yun, lumalaki. We have to fix those.”
It’s do-or-die for the defending NCAA Champions the San Beda Red Lions face the Letran Knights in Game Two of the Finals tomorrow at 4:00pm. Will this be the last game for Baser Amer, Art dela Cruz, Ola Adeogun, and the San Beda seniors or can the team regain its old form and extend the series to a Game Three?
