National University suffered its third defeat in the UAAP Season 86 Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The Lady Bulldogs faced an upset by the University of the Philippines, with a score of 69-72, on Sunday at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion.
However, head coach Aris Dimaunahan emphasized that the team should not dwell on this loss since it’s just the first round, and there are 11 more games to play in the elimination round.
“It should be a short-term memory for all of us starting from the coaches down to the players,” said the second-year NU tactician.
“This game is done and over with, we cannot do anything about it. The only thing we can do is to learn from this and bring it to the next games and hopefully we do better.”
This marked the first time the Lady Bulldogs lost to the Fighting Maroons in 12 years, dating back to August 29, 2011, when they suffered a 59-60 defeat to UP.
Dimaunahan admitted that his players were frustrated with the match’s outcome but pointed out that it serves as a good early wake-up call for them.
In the previous season, NU’s historic 108-game winning streak ended in the second round against De La Salle University, but they managed to bounce back and secure their seventh-straight title.
“All were disappointed and frustrated at the dugout but then again, this is a basketball game, one wins, the other one learns. Today, we’re the learning side,” said the former Blackwater head coach.
“That’s a great wakeup call for us this early and we’ll find a way to arrest that… For sure it will sting but again, it’s just a setback for us to make another comeback.”
Dimaunahan also acknowledged the Fighting Maroons, who outrebounded the Lady Bulldogs despite being the smaller team.
“You have to give credit to UP, coach Paul Ramos for devising a game plan like that which made it hard for us today,” said Dimaunahan.
“We’re a taller team but give credit to UP for outrebounding us today by five. Talks about a lot of grit and effort from the UP side that we have to check the next game.”
Next up for NU is a matchup against the still-unbeaten University of Santo Tomas on Wednesday.
