It has been a gloomy journey for Colegio de San Juan de Letran in the NCAA Season 99 as the defending champions struggled to find the right mixture to win in their past seven games.
On Wednesday, the victory finally came through for the Knights when they hacked out a convincing 86-71 triumph against San Sebastian College-Recoletos to crash into the win column with a 1-7 card.
Head coach Rensy Bajar is pinning his hopes that this statement win could serve as their turning point for the rest of the tournament.
"I think so. I'm positive [about] it and enjoy-in namin 'tong win na 'to then bukas balik kami to prepare for [De La Salle-College of] Saint Benilde. Positive ako na sana ito na 'yung turning point for our season, for us this season," Bajar said in the post-game interview.
(I think so. I'm positive about it and we'll enjoy this win, then tomorrow, we will be back to prepare for Benilde. I'm positive this will be our turning point four our season this season.)
Their breakthrough win, though, didn't come easy at all.
The Knights were missing an essential piece in Kurt Reyson, who was nursing a groin injury, while veteran big man Pao Javillonar logged in just three minutes as the graduating bruiser has yet to regain his full strength due to a flu in the past game.
Letran also had to buck a collapse in the third quarter as after leading by as many as 26 points, the Knights weren't able to put the clamps on Romel Calahat, who fueled a blazing 22-1 rampage that cut Letran's deficit to just five, 46-51.
The whole bench stepped up for the three-time reigning titleholder with Neil Guarino sparking their closing run with two triples before another long bomb from him sent Letran to a 72-52 cushion.
"Masaya kasi kahit papaano nalampasan namin ‘yung 0-7. Nakaisa na kami, despite na medyo kulang-kulang ‘yung team, maraming may sakit," Bajar added.
"I give credit to all my players kasi sila ‘yung naglaro at sila ‘yung gustong manalo talaga."
(We're happy because somehow, we moved past 0-7. We have one despite being undermanned and there were sick players. I give credit to all my players because they really wanted to win.)
Letran will try to build on this momentum in their finals rematch against the Blazers on Sunday before they head to the second half of the contest.
"Ayun lang, we are just taking one step at a time at saka 'yung experience ng team namin sana maging buo, hindi kapos."
(We are just taking it one step at a time and I hope that the experience of the team will be whole.)
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
