AFTER their jarring loss in the opening match of the Big Dance, coach Topex Robinson of defending champion La Salle refused to be shaken.
“They wanted it more than us, they did a lot of good things defensively as well as a team, again we just need to get back in Game 2,” Robinson said. “They did a great job defensively and stopping KQ (Kevin Quiambao), we weren’t able to make adjustments down the line, at this point it’s just a matter of us gaining learning from this experience.
“The only thing that I told the team, there’s a reason why this is a series. You don’t win a championship by winning one game, you need two games. So we still have a chance, we’ve been in this situation before, we just have to keep on being positive and try to learn from this experience. Again, that’s a tough team we played, we just have to slug it out in the end,” he added.
Robinson spoke after his wards absorbed a 65-73 loss to the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons in Game 1 of their best-of-3 finals showdown for the 87th UAAP basketball tournament crown.
Robinson and the Green Archers also fell to UP 67-97 in Game 1 of the last cage wars’ finals only to stun the Maroons in the next two tiffs to reach the Promised Land.
“We don’t look back at the past, that’s done and over with, we just make sure if we thought of that, of course, UP has thought of that as well that they lost (the title after they) won Game 1 (last season), we just need to let things go and focus on what we have, the players are different now we have a younger team, the team that played last season was gone and have moved forward,” Robinson said.
“Sa amin we just have to slug it out, iyon lang naman ang masasabi namin. We just have to make sure we will give ourselves a chance to win, as bad as we played, it still went down to a few possessions. “They did a good job defensively and credit goes to them, they really came in prepared.”
The second match of the race-to-3 series is set tomorrow at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
A deciding Game 3, if necessary, will be played on Sunday, Dec. 15, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Kevin Quiambao exploded for 18 points on 5-of-9 shooting in the first half but UP’s defense held the soon-to-named back-to-back MVP to just one point on 0-of-6 shooting in the second half. His only point came from a technical free throw at the 5:38 mark of the fourth quarter.
The do-it-all 6-foot-7 forward still contributed 11 rebounds, one assist, and one block but also turned the ball over six times.
Now is the time for the Taft-based five to show the heart of a champion.
