De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde head coach Charles Tiu was unhappy despite an 86-80 win against University of Perpetual Help System DALTA on Tuesday in NCAA Season 99.
The Blazers led by as many as 20 points after Migs Oczon buried a triple that sent them to a 75-55 cushion. However, the ALTAs would cut their deficit to just nine, 77-68, before Christian Pagaran sank three freebies to make it an 83-77 affair. Oczon then split his freebies to allow Benilde to escape.
Despite almost squandering the lead en route to the win, Tiu is hoping this win — the first time they won back-to-back games this season — would enable them to build their momentum moving forward.
" I was happy for the first three quarters until the fourth quarter, I don’t know what we’re doing. We were up by 20 [but] the guys got careless, they think the game’s over, they can’t follow instructions, and we’re not gonna go anywhere if we played that way," Tiu said.
"Secondly, I’m amazed we’ve found a way to win despite giving up 37 free throws. Thankfully Robi (Nayve) played well, he made some big plays and we were able to escape with a win."
The Blazers, who topped the elimination round last season with a 14-4 card before falling to Letran in the finals, opened Season 99 with a dismal loss to league-leading Lyceum of the Philippines University before barging into the win column via an overtime triumph against Jose Rizal University.
After that, though, the Blazers lost two games in a row after bowing to San Beda University and Mapua University for a 1-3 card.
Tiu said they badly needed the win against Perpetual, which he said is one of the Final Four contenders in his opinion, as they now improved to an even 3-3 card.
"I hope so. I really hope so because we talked about the importance of this game. Perpetual is one of the Final Four contenders, in my opinion," Tiu said.
"We got off to a rough start so hopefully we can build on this win. We just take one game at a time."
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
