Falcons remain upbeat about F4 bid

Adamson University head coach Nash Racela is not losing hope in clinching one of the two remaining Final Four seats in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 87 men’s basketball tournament despite a string of misfortunes.

After a rough patch, the Falcons got back up on their feet with a much-needed win over third-running University of the East to fan their flickering semis bid.

Adamson eked out a low-scoring 45-37 victory last Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena to snap a five-game losing skid.

Although the Falcons are still outside of the top four sporting a 4-7 win-loss record, Racela sees the situation as a glass half full.

The win which avenged Adamson’s one-point loss to the same rival in the first round pushed the squad to solo fifth behind University of Santo Tomas (UST) (5-6) and a game clear of Far Eastern University (3-7).

“Well, we are where we want to be. We’re just a game behind UST at No. 4,” the mentor said.

“So, that’s what we wanted before this game (against the Red Warriors) for us to get a legit chance (in the semis). So yeah, we’ll keep on pushing. Hopefully, moving forward, we just press the right buttons,” Racela added.

Defending champion De La Salle University (10-1) and University of the Philippines (UP) (9-1) occupied the first two Final Four seats.

The Falcons had a promising 3-2 start before spiraling down to five consecutive losses including heartbreaks on winnable games.

“If you look at those five losses, we were really in those games. In two of those games, we lost by one possession and by one rebound. We were close to UP. We just self-disrupted in the last three minutes,” Racela pointed out.

During the skid, Racela admitted he avoided mentioning the repercussions of each defeat to their Final Four chances.

“In reality, we tried avoiding talking about the Final Four. I’m sure it’s always in the back of their minds. But sometimes if you put pressure on yourself, the more you’ll struggle,” he said.

The tactician was just relieved to see his wards respond to the challenge.

“That’s something that we always preach. Improve yourself, acknowledge mistakes, and understand how you could correct them. Eventually, things will fall into its proper place,” Racela said.

“What’s great about our players is that they keep fighting kahit na hindi maipinta minsan ‘yung mukha, because of what we went through.”