Perasol finds ‘need to be better’ after UP escape act

MANILA, Philippines – Just over a week ago, the UP Maroons lost by one point against the top-ranked Adamson Falcons to a Sean Manganti game-winner after leading by double digits in the 3rd quarter. 

Then just last Sunday, October 7, the Maroons came close to repeating the exact same thing – collapsing at the very last moment against the reeling NU Bulldogs.

However, UP got a lucky break this time as the Bulldogs botched their final play that led to a one-point Maroons win, 89-88.

They got the UAAP win, but the fact remained that they were up big just a quarter prior. They also blew 4 straight free throws in the clutch that would have put the game to bed.

Of course, those lapses didn’t escape their head coach Bo Perasol, but the third-year tactician didn’t blow his gasket on his wards after the game.

“The positive way of saying it is we won while learning. I’d rather have that than learning and losing,” he said in the post-game presser.

“I have a bad feeling every time we end a quarter. It’s not just the end of the quarter in the 4th, it was just a culmination of what happened in the past. The important aspect of this is we can put this aside because we have a game on Wednesday, and I’m hoping that we all learn how to finish a game.”

“If I have to review the game, I’ll have to be happy about 50 percent of it,” he continued. “Regardless of what happens, if we could have just shot 50 percent of our free throws, that could have helped us also. I think we have to revisit what we do on our free throw drills, but mostly it’s going to be mental. I’m just relieved that we were able to get this win.”

Still, the Gomez de Liaño brothers and Akhuetie – UP’s best performers – bowed their heads in apparent shame while in the press room.

“I think we could have won by a huge margin, but then we gave them so much chances,” said Juan Gomez de Liaño, who finished with 20 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.

“A win’s a win, we could have done much better from our free throws to our defense but we’ll take it any day and after this game, we found out that we have a lot to improve on,” chimed in Javi Gomez de Liaño, who recorded a career-high 19 points with 8 boards and 4 dimes off the bench.

Perasol saw how his boys were looking and delivered a pep talk on the spot.

“The good thing about this is before, we’ll be happy escaping with a one-point win. But now, we’re sad about this because we know we’re better than that,” he said.

“We need to be better than that if we’re going to live up to our own expectations. We’re going to work on it. There’s really no time to rest. We need to go back, work it out and prepare for Wednesday’s game.”

After skidding down to 1-3 with 3 straight losses, UP now has a chance to finish the first round with a 4-3 winning record by downing UST – that is if they take in their words and hold on to the leads they make. – Rappler.com