The University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons brought the fight to the league-leading De La Salle University Green Archers Saturday afternoon. However, the A-game of the Fighting Maroons was not enough, as a deep Green Archers squad was able to leave the Smart-Araneta Coliseum unblemished, taking a 78-72 win.
The cagers from Diliman were able to keep within striking distance against La Salle but whenever they did, the Green Archers would force them into errors leading to easy baskets — a sign of both UP’s inexperience and La Salle’s maturity. But still, first year Fighting Maroons head coach Bo Perasol shared that the game had proved a point that UP can ride with the big boys of the league.
“Kung hindi masyado maraming tunrovers, palagay ko we could have done better,” Perasol rued as State U had committed 33 turnovers in the game that led to 26 points. “I don’t think we could just have a perfect game like that.”
Paul Desiderio scored 10 points in the final quarter to rally UP back
“I think that coming from where we came from, if we can face La Salle that way, I think we can face any team.”
The game would have been much closer if the Maroons had been able to convert on their free throws. Even if they shot a crisp 50 percent from the field compared to a season-low 33 percent for La Salle, UP missed eight of their charities much to the dismay of Perasol.
“Siguro, if we could have made some of our free throws, it could have been closer in the end,” he added.
But putting everything else aside, it’s a huge improvement for UP, something that Perasol hopes the team can sustain entering the final stretch of the tournament.
Aljun Melecio knocked down two triples in the final frame
“As I was telling them, aside form the missed free throws, aside from the offensive rebounds that we gave up, the attitude and the tempo of the game are the things that we really wanted to happen. In the end, La Salle just had too many horses,” he reflected.
“I had to put some of them to play a whole quarter. In the end, we really had to suffer in terms of fatigue. Any five that La Salle throws at us, wala kang maitatapon eh.”
“But despite all of those, I think my team stood their ground against a really formidable team,” Perasol declared.
With just five games remaining, the Fighting Maroons still have plenty of chances to surpass their run last season or maybe even make it to the Final Four.
