Jose Rizal University needed a lot of endgame composure to escape Lyceum of the Philippines University in two overtimes and return to the win column of NCAA Season 99 following two straight losses last week.
And the Heavy Bombers said it was trust in each other that allowed them to display that composure against the Pirates, who were equally hungry to end their similar two-game slide.
"Magandang bounce back ‘to. Coming from those two losses na we all thought na kaya namin, but syempre basketball is unpredictable, I think the boys played well and they held on together," said JRU assistant coach Alex Callueng on the heels of a thrilling 88-87 double overtime win on Tuesday.
"Kapit lang, sabi nga nila. We all know na we are going to come out as winners kasi from the start pa lang, ang preaching ng coaching staff is always believe in each other."
("This is a good bounce back. Coming from those two losses that we thought we could win, but of course basketball is unpredictable, I think the boys played well and they held on together... Keep on holding on, as they say. We all know that we are going to come out as winner because from the start, the preaching of the coaching staff is always believe in each other.")
That trust was on full display when the Heavy Bombers managed to come back from deficits in the first overtime before Marwin Dionisio and Joshua Guiab connived to open the second overtime with back-to-back baskets.
A Jearlan Omandac split from the charity stripes, however, saw JRU trailing by one with 16.5 seconds left. But thanks to a gutsy Jonathan Medina, who sank a one-handed jumper, the Heavy Bombers cruised to the hard-fought win.
Prior to the win, JRU was reeling from two consecutive losses that saw them fall to San Sebastian and San Beda and halt their three-game winning streak.
"Gaya ng Lyceum, kami rin ay galing sa two losses din. We all know that they will all come with guns blazing and we expected that kasi kami rin," added Callueng.
"Every game is a must-win game, nag-prepare kami for LPU not just for winning this game pero para rin sa morale ng team kasi we lose this game, baka bumaba ang morale."
("Just like Lyceum, we are also coming off two losses. We all know that they will all come with guns blazing and we expected because we were the same... Every game is a must-win game, we prepared for LPU not just for winning this game but for the morale of the team. Because if we lose this game, the morale might go down.")
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
