FOR a team that has lost six consecutive games, it will be fairly easy for its players to totally veer away from the system and try to do things their own way.
But luckily for Perpetual coach Olsen Racela, he has a team that is willing to stick out with him and continue to believe in his system amid the horror six-game losing run filled with heartbreaks and almosts.
And they were rewarded with a 65-58 win over skidding Arellano to re-ignite their playoff push in the NCAA Season 102 men’s basketball tournament.
READ: Perpetual finally ends horror slump by outlasting Arellano late
“[What I saw was] how they, as a team, listened and followed instructions. Minsan to a fault na nga, masyado silang to the letter, pero I appreciate that,” Racela replied when asked about what he saw in his players as they went through the trenches amid that terrible stretch.
“Yung game plan namin talagang sinusundan nila. Although there are times na medyo nawawala sila and yun ang cinocorrect namin pero yun ang nagustuhan ko sa kanila during that stretch. Talagang nakiikinig sila at sumusunod sila sa game plan namin.”
After losing several key cogs like Patrick Sleat and John Abis to the professional ranks, the Altas couldn’t be farther from their group run last season when they topped the group stage. They’re currently sitting fourth in Group B at 3-7 with three games remaining in the tournament.
But the good news for Racela is that they’re only half a game behind the third-running EAC Generals, and two games behind the struggling Chiefs who have lost five of their previous six games.
They’ve already secured one over the Chiefs, and they’re still yet to play the Generals which means they still have not only a chance of getting out of the knockout game play-in, they also have an outside shot of stealing the second-seed away from the Chiefs.
And despite their recent struggles, Racela believes that his team is already picking up steam especially with how they’ve performed even in those losses.
“Of course it’s frustrating when you lose a game, especially in a losing streak. We were looking at how we played the game. I think the last four, five games including this one, we held teams to a low score. That’s what we did not do in the early part of the season. We were looking at that, I just told them na dumepensa lang tayo,” he said.
“Palagi kong sinasabi sa kanila, the harder you work, the luckier you get. You just have to keep working hard, and then today we were lucky enough to get this win.”
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