ONCE again it will be Letran, head coach Allen Ricardo and star guard Titing Manalili who will be standing in the way of Mark Gojo Cruz and Perpetual’s hoop dreams.
The Knights and the Altas will be clashing in one of the semifinals pairings of the NCAA Season 101 men’s basketball tournament which starts this Tuesday, 11 AM at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
It was Letran who came away victorious in the lone meeting of the two teams, handling Perpetual’s first loss after a thrilling 63-56 victory early in the tournament, but despite that Ricardo knows that they have to double down on limiting the Perpetual duo of Patrick Sleat and Mark Gojo Cruz.
READ: Letran completes NCAA semis cast by eliminating Arellano
“We have to know what they’re doing, number one. We have to know their personnel and kanina sila mageend up at the end of the day,” Ricardo said.
“They have Patrick Sleat and Gojo Cruz. Yun ang heart and soul ng team nila e so siyempre kailangan malimitan namin sila para we have a good chance of closing in and winning the game.”
Gojo Cruz, of course, is someone Ricardo is very familiar with.
Gojo Cruz was one of the Junior Altas’ in Ricardo and Manalili’s final year with the Squires back in the NCAA Season 99.
Aside from “MGC,” the Junior Altas were boasting of top collegiate recruits Amiel Acido and LeBron Jhames Daep, and like today’s Altas – their squad also claimed the top seed of the tournament in that run.
But Manalili, together with his current teammate Syrex Silorio and the impressive George Diamante stopped the Gojo Cruz from ever winning a high school title in the NCAA as the Squires took the championship in three games with Manalili winning Finals MVP with averages of 22 points, seven assists, five rebounds and three steals.
Since then, Gojo Cruz has emerged as one of the Altas’ main guys – impressing in his rookie year with averages of 12.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists.
This year, the sophomore stays consistent even with the addition of Sleat – putting averages of 13.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists.
Ricardo knows he’s got his hands full again trying to contain Gojo Cruz.
“I’m excited to face him again, dito naman sa level ng college,” Ricardo said of Gojo Cruz.
“Ang laki ng maturity niya. I know he works hard on his game and he’s improved a lot from juniors to being a rookie last year to going to this year.”
Even with just two more wins until Letran returns to the finals after missing out on the playoffs over the past two seasons, Ricardo isn’t getting ahead of himself.
He knows that he has to tread this Perpetual series very carefully knowing that this is a team who capitalizes on its opponents mistakes
“Siyempre nandito na tayo sa semifinals, we have to do [whatever] it takes to move to the next level which is the championship,” he said.
“We have to play hard and take care of business. At the end of the day, it’s not just all about playing hard, we have to play smart as well, especially dealing with Perpetual,” he said.
“Ang galing mag-execute ng Perpetual so di ka pwedeng caught napping dyan, split second talagang shoshootan ka nila.”
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