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MANILA, Philippines – After playing arguably his worst game of UAAP Season 79 and watching his team suffer its first defeat in 13 games against their archrival, De La Salle Green Archers big man Ben Mbala said he wants to face the Ateneo Blue Eagles once again this year.
After leading La Salle’s blowout win over Ateneo in the first round, Mbala – the UAAP’s leading scorer – was limited to 17 points on only 5-of-13 shooting to go with 15 rebounds and 7 turnovers in the two teams’ second-round matchup on Saturday, November 5.
La Salle and Ateneo can meet again either in the Final Four round if the Blue Eagles (7-4) end up with the #4 seed to face the Green Archers (12-1) – who are already assured of the top seed – or if both teams advance to the championship round.
“Well, yeah, probably that would be a good game for us. I think we need games like this, since it’s Ateneo-La Salle. We played them in the Filoil twice. I really hope we meet them again in the finals or the semis for us to show them that we won’t back down,” said the Cameroonian center.
“[We] just lost today (Saturday), but it doesn’t mean to say we’re a different team. We’re still La Salle and we’ve been working on our game since summer, so we won’t just let it all go just because of a game. We just have come back stronger, that’s it.”
After rampaging through the UAAP and playing like the far superior squad leading up to Saturday, La Salle looked like a mess for most of the contest against Ateneo. The Blue Eagles moved the ball effectively and constantly exploited holes in the Green Archers’ defense, and then hounded Mbala with double teams on the defensive end of the floor.
“We were not able to execute our offense and defense,” Mbala lamented.
La Salle entered the match averaging 90 points a game but was limited to only 71 on Saturday. The Aldin Ayo-coached club hit only 29% of its field goal attempts. (READ: Ayo: Blame me, coaching staff for loss to Ateneo)
“We didn’t play La Salle basketball,” explained Mbala. “We just went out there and just played like a bunch of guys who just got into a team and then started doing a bunch of things. We didn’t stick to the game plan.”
Mbala, who’s in his first season as a Green Archer, was especially tough on himself.
“I feel like I played poorly. I shot less than 50% from the field and I wasn’t really able to make good adjustments since I had 7 turnovers. These are things I shouldn’t be doing during games like Ateneo-La Salle. I just have to back and keep working on my game. Can’t just let it bring me down,” he said.
The loss prevented La Salle from ending the elimination round with a 14-0 sweep and earning an outright berth to the finals. The Green Archers now have a remaining match against the defending champion FEU Tamaraws before entering the Final Four.
“We always have to learn from losing. We cannot just win every day. That’s something we have to learn accept, just go back to the court, and work harder,” said Mbala.
“We have to be able to be accountable [for] what we did. It’s just a loss, so we have to learn from it and leave it in the past,” he later added. – Rappler.com
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