College of Saint Benilde’s 71-69 loss to Letran College in Season 100 of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) men’s basketball tournament over the weekend wasn’t just because of Kevin Santos’ clutch basket.
Blazers head coach Charles Tiu believed they deserved that loss after the team’s lack of urgency and point guard Jhomel Ancheta getting ejected in the second quarter.
Letran played inspired basketball in the fourth quarter with Deo Cuajao scoring 15 of his 20 points as it plucked a win over its fellow Strong Group Athletics-backed school.
What made this loss more stinging apart from seeing Saint Benilde’s four-game win streak get snapped was that it happened in front of SGA chief Frank Lao at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.
“We deserve to lose. Our starting point guard acted poorly and got himself ejected. We were up 14 in the fourth and choked it up,” Tiu told DAILY TRIBUNE.
“We couldn’t recover after the great shooting from Cuajao. A horrible three-point foul call by the referee and just went downhill from there.”
Ancheta was slapped with a disqualifying foul in the six-minute and 44 second-mark of the second quarter after landing a punch at the back of Knights big man Pao Javillonar.
The transferee from Centro Escolar University could be facing at least a one-game suspension similar to what Season 98 Most Valuable Player Will Gozum got.
Gozum landed a headbutt on Javillonar in Game 3 of the NCAA Season 98 finals, forcing him to miss the Blazers’ first game of Season 99.
If there is any silver lining from this, Tiu said this loss is something the team needs to learn from in its next games, starting with host Lyceum of the Philippines University on Friday.
Saint Benilde hasn’t won an NCAA title since 2000 when Jondan Salvador and Sunday Salvacion led the school to glory.
“It’s a good loss to give these guys some humble pie. We have to be smarter and be more composed,” Tiu said.