San Sebastian College-Recoletos needed only one motivation in dealing Colegio de San Juan de Letran its 13th loss of the season as the Stags cruised to a 94-75 victory on Wednesday.
Stags head coach John Kallos said they used their first round loss to the Knights as their fuel when the two teams met anew for their final clash this season. That loss, incidentally, became the only win so far for Letran as the Muralla crew fell to 1-13 card.
"Sabi nga ng coaching staff kanina na hindi pwedeng matalo kami," Kallos said.
"Kailangan naming bumawi kasi kami rin ‘yung nagbigay ng first win sa Letran so the players responded well doon sa challenge na binigay sa kanila ng mga coaches."
"I give credit doon sa players kasi talagang sumunod sila hanggang sa dulo."
(I told the coaching staff earlier that we can't lose. We need to avenge because we gave Letran their first win so the players responded well on that challenge given by the coaches. I give credit to the players since they followed until the end.)
During their first round encounter, Letran wingman Niel Guarino presided over their 86-71 victory against the stags that allowed them to end a seven-game losing streak.
However, the Stags learned their lesson the hard way and made sure that they won't commit the same mistake twice when they crossed paths anew.
Today, San Sebastian cruised to a wire-to-wire triumph to hike their win count to five and remain in the race for a Final Four spot.
Despite the win, Kallos knows the job won't get easier for them as they are still in the lower half of the team standings with all teams trying to seize the four semifinals spots.
"Siyempre kami, one game at a time and may chance pa kami so we’ll just do our best in each and every game."
(For us, we'll take it one game at a time and we still have a chance so we'll just do our best in each and every game.)
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
