After starting the season with a bright 5-2 slate, the defending NCAA Seniors Basketball champions have lost four straight losses that have dropped them to sixth place in the rankings. Those four losses, though, were by the thinnest of margins, just an average of 4.0 points per game.
The Colegio de San Juan de Letran Knights might have suffered their most heartbreaking defeat of that span on Tuesday afternoon after the JRU Heavy Bombers, a team they had defeated in the first round, outlasted the Knights in overtime. After going up by two points with a minute left in regulation, and again by four points early in overtime, the Knights could not sustain the energy of Rey Nambatac and floor general JP Calvo, succumbing to JRU’s pressure.
“Talo talaga e. We collapsed sa end game,” lamented first year Letran head coach Jeff Napa. “Yun yung fini-figure out namin. Pero positibo pa rin ako na may ilalabas pa kami. We will find a way para makaalis dito.”
Napa, 36, a proven winner who took the UAAP Juniors Basketball crown thrice and was part of the NU Bulldogs championship team in the UAAP’s 77th Season, is not used to losing – even sharing that this four-game funk is the worst stretch in his career.
“No one expected kahit naman ako. Ever since ayokong ayoko natatalo,” he said.
“Never kong sa buong buhay ko na natalo ng four-game losing streak pero still kelangan ko mag stand up at pakita sa mga bata na positibo ako at may liwanag sa dulo.”
Friday afternoon, though, the defending NCAA champions face their most pivotal game of the season, a match against rivals San Beda College. A loss sends them three games back from the Final Four and might spell the end of their bid for back-to-back titles.
For Napa, he is no longer thinking about the wins or losses, nor the Knights’ rivalry with the Red Lions. What he wants is that his players prove to him what a Letranite is really made of.
“Hindi ko na iniisip yung panalo, iniisip ko na lang yung pride. Ako may pride din ako sa sarili ko. Nung naglalaro ako may pride talaga ako e,” he concluded.
“Gusto ko makita yung pride ng mga bata ngayon. Hindi ko na iniisip yung panalo o mga talo, gusto ko makita yung pride at yung tunay na Letranista na sinasabi nila na hindi sumusuko.”
