De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde head coach Charles Tiu didn't hide his frustrations over what he called the worst win in his coaching career following the Blazers' narrow 96-94 overtime win against San Sebastian College- Recoletos on Tuesday.
"I’m not happy at all. This is probably maybe the worst win in my life," a disappointed Tiu said in the post-game interview.
"Really mind-boggling, I mean, credit to Baste. They played really hard, their guards grabe rin ang nilaro nila. We knew naman coming into the game they’re a team that comes back, we saw what they did to Letran, mga late-game heroics. Muntik na gano’n mangyari sa amin, medyo swerte lang, tsamba lang talaga ‘yung panalo namin."
[Really mind-boggling, I mean, credit to Baste. They played really hard, their guards played great. We knew coming into the game they're a team that comes back, we saw what they did to Letran, the late-game heroics. It almost happened to us, we just got lucky that we won.]
The Blazers were able to hold a lead as big as 26, but a huge fourth quarter by the Stags saw the game tied at 87-all at the end of regulation with Raymart Escibido, Paeng Are, and Nikko Aguilar fueling their uprising.
Thanks to crucial baskets from Tony Ynot and the controversial game-sealing layup from the returning Jhomel Ancheta, the Blazers came away with the victory to improve to 6-1 and solidify their hold of the top spot.
Ynot nearly put together a triple-double with 23 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, and one steal while Allen Liwag chipped in 17 markers, 11 boards, and four dimes to salvage the win for the Taft crew.
Despite the win, Tiu was fuming over the fact that his wards squandered a huge lead and were forced to win it in overtime.
"To be honest, I don’t know what happened. I wish I knew. I’m also looking for an explanation or an excuse for us why this happened," Tiu added.
"It’s one of the worst games that I’ve been a part of. For us to be playing like this, it’s like high school, actually parang grade school pa nga kami maglaro eh. So we really have to do a better job."
[It’s one of the worst games that I’ve been a part of. For us to be playing like this, it’s like high school, actually it's like grade school, the way we played. So we really have to do a better job.]
And to remedy the situation? Tiu said he won't go easy on his players as they now prepare to end their first round run against Arellano and JRU.
"Practice hard and kill them tomorrow, probably. No breaks."
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
