Ben Mbala does not want all of their hard work this season to go to waste.
The De La Salle University Green Archers have been dominant for most of the regular season. The benchmark of the entire collegiate basketball landscape, La Salle finished the regular season with a 13-1 slate, leaving their opponents reeling with an average winning margin of 15.1 points per game.
After a 10-day break however, there was no semblance of the well-oiled Green Archer machine that dominated the league. La Salle barely escaped the upstart Adamson Soaring Falcons 69-64 to squeak into the finals for the first time since 2013.
During the game, the Green Archers committed an eye-popping 26 turnovers, 2.3 turnovers above their norm. Moreover, Adamson’s quick double-teams resulted to less touches for soon-to-be-named MVP Ben Mbala. Starting off the game with 14 first half points, the Cameroonian student-athlete scored just seven points in the second half.
“I think we just have to get better on defense and better decision-making on offense,” Mbala, who had 16 boards and four swats, lamented. “We cannot keep on playing like that in the Finals. We have to find a way to make adjustments and lessen our turnovers.”
And the first-year Green Archer admits that it is a major of concern for the team especially at this stage of the tournament.
“This deep in the season we cannot afford to have that many turnovers. The lesson is we have to find a way to take care of the ball,” the 6-foot-7 big man furthered.
“It’s more about us. Not to discredit Adamson but we have been struggling with our one-on-one defense and bringing the ball down.”
La Salle mentor Aldin Ayo did not hold back in expressing his disgust with how his team played. And Mbala is bracing for the tough practices his mentor will hold in preparation for the big dance.
“He wasn’t happy and he made sure to let us know that he wasn’t happy. We have to find ways to fix that meaning during trainings, we need to have more hours and more effort on defense,” he said.
“We’ve been handling that for months and we were able to survive so I don’t think one week would kill us. For the Finals, we need to put in the necessary effort to find ways.”
