Far from over

De La Salle University isn’t crying over spilled milk after suffering a 63-66 loss to defending champion University of the Philippines (UP) in Game 2 of Season 88 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball finals last Sunday.

Green Archers head coach Topex Robinson said the Green Archers just could not make things happen and the Fighting Maroons came out more aggressively this time.

Gerry Abadiano led UP with 17 points as the Diliman-based dribblers look forward to completing a turnaround in Game 3 on Wednesday.

“There's a reason this is the finals, the championship will not be given to you. You have to earn it and I guess they were the more aggressive team today,” Robinson said.

“Even if this is Game 2 of the finals, yes, we're going to make mistakes. The experience of UP showed up earlier. So those guys really played their guts out.”

“We cannot complain, you know, given this opportunity. We have to remember we're a young team.”

Robinson also addressed Vhoris Marasigan’s potential game-winning shot with seven seconds left in the game that rimmed out.

“We have rule No. 1, and that’s use your best judgment. We’re always gonna stick to what we agreed upon as mature individuals here. That shot could have brought the house down,” Robinson said.

“As long as those shots were the ones Vhoris was practicing, we’re gonna be okay with that. We always say that players win games and they will always lose games for us. That’s not gonna change even if this is Game 2 of the finals.”

Jacob Cortez, who finished with 16 points in Game 2, is ready to step up for La Salle and encourages his teammates to show the same hunger UP did.

“That's why I told my teammates to be more aggressive and they were kind of tentative. Well, it's up to me to lead them and encourage them to take those shots,” Cortez said.

“We already expected that the aggressive defensive plays that they're going to deny me, try to get me off my game. And I guess it worked.”

Only Luis Pablo was able to reach double digits for La Salle apart from Cortez, scoring 12 points.

Marasigan and Mike Phillips were held to just eight points while Doy Dungo was limited to three after his 15-point eruption in Game 1 last Wednesday.

The no-tomorrow third game will be played at the Smart Araneta Coliseum at 3:30 p.m.