One win, two close losses.
Life after Donald Tankoua’s season ending injury has been hard for the San Beda College Red Lions. The once bullies in the paint have been victims on the block. The absence of San Beda’s double-double machine was greatly felt by the Mendiola cagers Thursday afternoon against Allwell Oraeme and the Mapua Institute of Technology Cardinals.
“Well, you have to give it to them,” Jarin said after San Beda absorbed its third loss of the season.
“They came back. We played hard. They came back. We forced them to overtime. They made the right plays so congratulations to them.”
The Red Lions were outrebounded in the game 56 to 41. Reigning MVP Allwell Oraeme even outrebounded the whole San Beda during halftime, 16 to 14, before finishing the game with 24 huge rebounds.
Jarin admits that the team misses the services of their Cameroonian student-athlete, especially against the Cardinals.
“They rebounded more than us. So that’s where you’re missing your wide-bodied Donald,” he shared.
“There’s no guarantee though that we would have won. But he could have been a big big contribution.”
However, given the circumstance given to him and his team, the multi-time UAAP Juniors champion coach wants his players to collectively make-up the 15 rebounds per game they are missing.
“We have to move on. We can’t cry over spilled milk,” Jarin shared.
“One thing is definite is he’s out of the season. So, we just have to come in fighting and like what I said, it has to be a collective effort by everybody.”
And with just a half a game lead in the standings over the Arellano Chiefs and the surging Perpetual Altas, the Red Lions have to get their acts together as they could still fall to as far as fifth place, missing the Final Four.
“Good thing about it is Perpetual won against Arellano so we’re still number one,” he closed.
“So, we just have to keep pace with them or they just have to keep pace with us on the other way around. We just need to play harder and win more games to get that top two spots.
“We can’t worry about it right now. So, we just need to keep on pushing.”
