NU main man J-Jay Alejandro laments early collapse in Bulldogs’ loss

MANILA, Philippines – After falling in a crucial matchup against fellow contender Adamson, the NU Bulldogs once again came up short in another powerhouse tussle with the FEU Tamaraws, 90-83.

With two straight losses putting them at 2-3 for the season, they now find their Final Four bid in jeopardy as they fall all the way down to 6^th place, just above winless UE and UST.

Whatever the Bulldogs’ troubles may be, it certainly does not revolve around NU’s captain J-Jay Alejandro. In the last two losses, the veteran guard has averaged a stellar 24 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists on 21/43 (49%) shooting. However, in both games, the team as a whole struggled early in the first half and came up short in their second half rallies.

Alejandro surely noticed these lapses, as he said in a post-game interview after the FEU loss:

“Natalo kami late in the first quarter, 22-15. Nung 2^nd quarter, tie – 3^rd quarter, tie. Fourth quarter, lamang pa kami.

(“We lost late in the first quarter, 22-15. The 2^nd quarter was tied – 3^rd quarter, tied. Fourth quarter, we even led.”)

The captain also pointed out bench scoring woes on their part: “Yung start naman namin, okay, pero pagdating nung bench, doon kami natalo. Kung titingnan yung bench points, ang laki ng lamang nila.”

(Our start was okay, but when the bench played, that’s where we lost. Looking at the bench points, they had a big lead on us.)

In the first half, FEU’s bench led over NU in scoring, 26-16. At the end of the game, it had ballooned to 54-33, mostly due to Arvin Tolentino’s career-high explosion of 23 points off the bench. In fact, FEU’s bench outscored their own starters 54-36, while NU’s starters did most of the heavy lifting, 50-33.

Despite Tolentino and FEU as a whole being feared as deadeye shooters from downtown, NU failed to close out on their treys en route to 10 uncontested field goals by the Tamaraws.

The Bulldogs have an uphill battle to face as they get back to Final Four contention, facing the league’s last remaining undefeated team in Ateneo (4-0) on Saturday and surprise second-placer UP (3-1) on October 8, Sunday. – Rappler.com