For the seventh consecutive game, the Adamson University Soaring Falcons have come up short against the De La Salle University Green Archers.
The Soaring Falcons were already up 73-64 in the dying stages of the final period, only for the Green Archers to drive home a a 9-0 run capped off by Aljun Melecio’s floater to force the game into overtime, where Adamson eventually folded 78-79.
“This was a tough, tough game to lose for us.
“I think that there is a lot of stuff that we did in the game that were wrong and we should have won, obviously, but I don’t know? It’s just the little mistakes that, towards the end, we shouldn’t have made,” said Adamson guard Jerrick Ahanmisi.
The result was Adamson’s second straight defeat in the UAAP Season 81 Men’s Basketball Tournament, and it was a dampener on what was an impressive first round run.
“We just couldn’t execute in the end, couldn’t defend, made some bad mistakes in the end. Jerick said it,” lamented Adamson forward Sean Manganti.
While the setback was painful, the result merely lit a fire in San Marcelino-based cagers to push them further into the second round. Two straight losses don’t end a campaign, and Adamson know that.
“We’re just gonna prepare for every game that we have. The next game after the next game, after the next game. Our coaches are gonna do good to scout the other teams like they did in the first round and we’re just gonna take every game one game at a time,” explained Ahanmisi.
For Manganti, though, it’s all about improving their performance down the stretch as two defeats in overtime were lessons that Adamson must heed. “We just gotta play better in crunch time. We really shot ourselves in the foot. We lost that game.
“La Salle did not beat us. We beat ourselves.”
Come the second round, the Green Archers can expect the Soaring Falcons to be determined to enact revenge. Adamson feel they have a score to settle with La Salle after last season’s Final Four clash, as well as Tyrus Hill and Kurt Lojera’s transfer to the Taft school.
Ahanmisi stated, “I don’t really have much to say. I just want to beat them the next time we play them next round. We’re just gonna prepare for them and we’re gonna do everything we can to beat them next round.”
Time is still on Adamson’s side to finally nail a win over La Salle this season. When both teams compete again, expect a fiery clash between the Soaring Falcons and the Green Archers.
“The only positive thing that came out is that it’s only the first round. I wanna beat them so bad. They’re number one on my list. I think they know that. This one hurts but we’re just gonna take it like any other game,” admits Manganti.
“We’re gonna go one game at a time. We’re not going to change our mentality,” he added.
“We still think we belong here.”
