In the third quarter of the College of Saint Benilde’s match-up against the University of Perpetual Help System DALTA in the NCAA Season 99 Seniors Basketball Tournament on Tuesday, the Blazers’ offense operated like a well-oiled machine.
Despite reigning MVP Will Gozum being out for most of the quarter due to foul trouble, team captain Robi Nayve took charge of the Blazers’ offense. With Nayve leading the way, the team scored 29 points in the third quarter.
They then finished the quarter with a 14-point advantage.
Benilde’s head coach, Charles Tiu, had nothing but praise for his Blazers’ performance in the third quarter.
“I thought they played unselfishly in the third quarter. Credit to guys like Robi, but we were moving the ball, attacking, and making good reads. That has nothing to do with me; that’s on the players making the plays,” shared Tiu.
The lead would grow to as much as 20 in the early stages of the final quarter, but things took a downturn for the Blazers from there.
Perpetual staged a comeback in the last few minutes of the game, reducing the lead to as little as five, with the score at 85-80 after a three-pointer from Christian Pagaran.
However, the Altas eventually ran out of time, and Benilde held on for an 86-80 victory as the final whistle blew.
Benilde’s performance in the final stages of the match left Tiu disappointed, and the second-year head coach didn’t hesitate to express his frustration to his players.
“I was happy for the first three plus quarters until the fourth quarter.
“I don’t know what we’re doing. The guys get careless, they think the game is over, we’re doing stupid things. We can’t follow instructions, we’re not gonna go anywhere if we play that way,” Tiu declared.
Tiu explained that the Blazers had become too complacent after building such a significant lead, allowing the Altas to make a comeback. He also took responsibility for not refocusing his players during the game.
“Puro kami pa-cute basically.
“We started doing some silly turnovers, not being smart, doing the complete opposite of what we asked them. That’s probably my responsibility if we can’t get them to follow what we want right,” he added.
“But it was an ugly last few minutes and we’re lucky we escaped with the win because if it was a bit longer we probably would have lost the game,” rued the youthful head coach, who is in his third year as Blazers mentor.
Despite his strong overall performance, team captain Robi Nayve also took responsibility for the team’s shortcomings.
“It’s good to win, but coach pushed us and we’re not happy with how we finished the game,” said the graduating guard.
“We could have finished better, if only maglock in kami sa loob, and isa na yun sa pagkukulang ko sa leadership ko siguro. I wasn’t able to rally up the guys. They were making a run.”
Tiu, Nayve, and the rest of the Blazers have a lengthy break to regroup as their next game is scheduled for Sunday at 2:40 PM, still at the Filoil Ecooil Centre.
