De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde head coach Charles Tiu stressed they had already moved on from what transpired last season, where the Blazers succumbed to eventual champion Colegio de San Juan de Letran in the finals.
That was the mindset when Benilde took on embattled Letran on Sunday — their first meeting since December 18, 2022.
"You know, we try not to talk too much about the past. I guess everybody knows they beat us in the finals last season so they (Blazers) should be motivated," Tiu said.
"But we just talked about how both of our teams are needing wins."
Benilde was coming off a heartbreaking loss to Emilio Aguinaldo College last Friday, where they absorbed a 78-76 defeat despite a career-high outing from team captain Robi Nayve.
They badly wanted to bounce back from that, regardless of the opponent, even if it was the three-time defending champion Knights.
"I was really worried about the loss to EAC and then against Letran who’s hungry for a win," added Tiu.
"We executed our game plan well, we defended well, and thankfully we were able to come up with this big win because we needed a win badly."
Migs Oczon showed up in the second half after a scoreless performance in the first half, finishing with 15 points, six rebounds, and six assists to tow the Blazers to a 68-55 triumph.
Oczon, for his part, said part of the motivation was last season's painful finals ending. He, however, said their goal each day was just to win as they look to return to the finals.
"Of course it’s a given na andiyan ‘yung motivation kasi we lost to them in the finals. Alam namin kung ano nangyari last season and each and everyone from us understood kung ano ‘yung kailangan naming gawin," the sharpshooting guard said.
"But at the end of the day ang mindset namin, win every game, we play as if na gusto naming manalo each game."
(Of course, it's a given that the motivation is there because we lost to them in the finals. We know what happened last season and each and everyone from us understood what we need to do. At the end of the day, our mindset is to win every game, play as if we want to win each game.)
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
