The monkey was finally off of the backs of Boyet Fernandez and the San Beda Red Lions, Thursday evening.
“The monkey is off our backs right now. Everybody’s been saying that we cannot beat LPU and it’s really a good challenge,” shared Fernandez, after San Beda’s 75-68 triumph over the Pirates.
In their last three elimination round meetings, Lyceum have always found a way to outlast San Beda.
The Pirates defeated the Red Lions 96-91 and 107-105 respectively last season. Though San Beda were able to sweep them in the finals, Lyceum still scored a 73-66 victory in their first meeting this season.
Since then, the Pirates lost to the Perpetual Altas, 83-81, and the Letran Knights, 80-79.
And Fernandez did not look far to see how he could solve the Lyceum puzzle.
“I do thank the coaches from other teams because I watch their games. I saw how the two teams beat Lyceum so I think we got the cue from that,” expressed Fernandez as he utilized the zone defense all through out the game.
“Ayan naman product ng trabaho atsaka scouting eh. I do thank the coaches before I played Lyceum.”
With this defense, Lyceum shot just 4-for-17 from downtown, and they were forced to work for their shots. CJ Perez struggled as well, finishing with a season-low nine points.
Although they have gotten over this hump, Fernandez is not yet looking to the Final Four, as the defending champions still have a game left on their slate. And he wants to end their elimination round campaign strong.
“We don’t know what will happen again in the future. I really don’t know. Kaya hindi namin alam kung ano situwasyon namin basta kami gusto lang namin manalo today.”
