Tuesday’s PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup action at the Pasig City Sports Center saw a battle of coach Egay Macaraya’s teams, when the Centro Escolar University Scorpions took on the Chélu Bar-San Sebastian Revellers.
Prior to the start of the conference, Macaraya had made it clear that he will be on the bench of CEU, where he currently serves as the program’s consultant after being their head coach for years. The veteran mentor was true to his word, as Stevenson Tiu called the shots for the Golden Stags-backed squad.
The Mendiola-based cagers, behind Rod Ebondo’s 28 points and 23 rebounds, manhandled the Golden Stags, 105-88. It was a far cry from the expected close fight. But for Macaraya, this will only help San Sebastian moving forward.
“The good thing about it is number one, it will be a learning process for San Sebastian na it’s not all about Ebondo, it’s not about an import, it’s all about teamwork,” said Macaraya, as three more Scorpions finished in double figures.
“Kasi even if Ebondo is dominating every aspect of the game, still, all the players sa CEU were working hard also to defend them,” the D-League champion coach added, as CEU forced San Sebastian to shoot just 35 percent from the field.
Macaraya has always been putting premium on defense. CEU may have had more turnovers (9-21) and less steals (5-11), but their 12 blocks — eight from Ebondo — and the way they executed schemes spoke volumes.
And that is what the third-year San Sebastian head coach hopes the Golden Stags will realize: good defense wins games.
“The good thing about this game right now is they will know, they will understand that the team who plays good defense, wins the game. Kasi alam natin na parehong magagaling eh,” Macaraya said.
“But CEU was more aggressive in playing defense, so yun talaga yung factor ng nanalo.”
