University of the Philippines head coach Bo Perasol admitted that the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers simply outplayed his Fighting Maroons following their 69-85 defeat in the UAAP Season 82, Saturday evening.
Unlike in their win versus FEU last Wednesday, UP failed to maintain any composure in the endgame. The Growling Tigers finished the game with an 11-0 blast en route to the 16-point victory.
“We don’t deserve to win that game. Plain and simple: UST just outplayed us,” admitted the veteran bench strategist after the defeat, which dropped UP’s record to 1-1.
“It just showed the crack on our team and what we need to address.“
Saturday’s game marked the second time the Fighting Maroons missed the services of Kobe Paras due to an ankle injury. Perasol fortunately said that Paras might see action in UP’s next game versus Adamson on September 15.
When asked if a player’s absence affects the team, the former PBA coach refuted the idea.
“Malaking bagay, but those things happen. But it’s not just about losing, it’s about how we play the game,” said Perasol, who’s been in UP since 2016.b
“We need to share the ball more. We really need to really play good defense.
“It’s like watching everybody. We’re trying to watch everybody make things happen. If Juan makes a shot, Ricci makes the shot, Bright makes the shot, we’re all watching them and hoping that things will happen the right way,” he continued.
“Kasi that’s the tendency when you know you have very good teammates, but at the end of this, you know that you have very good opponents also. So we have to find a way to make things work, make things happen for us,” he said.
Still, Perasol said that the season is early, and they have time to correct the things that should be corrected.
“The good thing about that is it is very early, and we were able to survive FEU. We’re still 1-and-1.”
