More than anything else, San Beda’s all-important 77-73 win over Letran on Tuesday was about the team’s ability to pull stops and show a solid effort on the defensive end.
The Red Lions shot an impeccable 56% from the field, and also limited the Knights to only 35%t field goal shooting. The defending champions also controlled the rebounding battle against the smaller Knights, 46-34.
This was a stark contrast from their first meeting where the Red Lions allowed the Knights to score 93 points.
“We really need to step up on defense and it is a team effort on defense,” head coach Jamike Jarin said.
Jarin also lauded his boys for making the postseason for the 10th straight time.
“I am just happy right now. Our main goal is to get to the final four and get the twice to beat advantage and in one day we were able to do both,” he said.
“That’s the character of a team that wants to win. We came off a bad loss against Arellano. We really needed to bounce back and play solid and we did.”
And in the succeeding games, Jarin hopes the team uses its defense again to generate victories, as close affairs may boil down on defense more than anything else.
“You got 10 players and and one ball and all those players are going after that ball. It is about playing defense and it is about getting that ball and putting it in the hoop,” he said.
