Mapua University is off to a hot start in the ongoing NCAA Season 98 Juniors Basketball Tournament.
The Red Robins are currently on a 4-0 start for a tie at the top of the standings with Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
But what’s impressive with Mapua’s streak compared to Letran is that they have arguably a much tougher schedule.
They defeated the highly-touted La Salle Green Hills to start their campaign (74-70) before beating University of Perpetual Help System DALTA (75-66) and defending champion San Beda-Taytay (76-62).
Though not having the same star power as the other squads, Red Robins head coach Yong Garcia said that what they have is execution.
“I’m happy dun sa mga players and credits din sa kanila na naexecute namin yung gameplan both offensively and defensively,” he said after their win over the Red Cubs last Wednesday.
Against San Beda, Mapua was put to the test.
The Red Robins finished the game strong but it cannot be denied that they struggled at the start not getting their rhythm offensively.
Good thing Nygel Gonzales was there to make up for the early offensive slump, scoring almost half of Mapua’s first half points with 16 for them to get the slight 34-29 advantage, going to the second half.
“Ineexpect ko na na darating sa kanya yung ganitong performance kasi nakikita ko naman sa bata na all-out siya palagi sa mga practices namin, and even dun sa game, talagang all-out siya,” Garcia told about Gonzales, who finished with 18 points on 8-for-14 shooting together with six rebounds and six assists while going a game-high plus-28.
But when it mattered most, the Red Robins got ahead of their slump as they outscored the Red Cubs 42-33, thanks to the efforts of Sean Salvador, Nicolo Mulingtapang, and Noel Agemanyi who came alive in the second half as the lead even grew to by as much as 20, 71-51 thanks to an Agemenyi bucket right at the 3:40-mark in the payoff period.
“Nung umpisa medyo okay naman and then yung San Beda credits din sa kanila pero nung sa endgame, nagfocus talaga yung mga bata dun sa endgame namin so yun.”
And that focus Gonzales and the rest of the Red Robins has is what they will need as the season enters crunch time.
