A LOT were left dumbfounded as to why St. Benilde head coach TY Tang kept Clement Leutcheu and Yankie Haruna in the bench for the entire first half in their 85-78 loss to San Sebastian on Tuesday.
Tang explained that the two were under disciplinary action and they had an agreement that they can only play for a limited number of time.
“Both Clement and Yankee are under disciplinary sanctions for that. There was already an agreement to what will happen in today’s game,” said Tang.
Tang refused to disclose on why they sanctioned Leutcheu and Haruna, but went on to explain that he gives more importance to the player’s discipline than winning a game.
“Right now we are rebuilding our team. This is the part wherein we’d rather discipline more than bring them out there and compete to win,” said Tang.
“In the bigger picture of things, we want them to be winners in life,” he added.
The two still played pretty well in the second half with Haruna finishing with 12 points as Leutcheu added 10 boards and six points in the win.
For Leutcheu, he holds no ill-feeling over the disciplinary action.
“It's so happened that it was a coaching decision. The coaches are the ones making the gameplan and we just follow it,” he added.
Though he would have been a huge help in giving the Blazers a good start against the Stags, Leutcheu trusts his head coach in making the decisions – and even he would admit that he couldn’t really tell about the outcome had he played in the first half.
“I can't tell. We are here as brothers and we trust one another. We are in this together. Whoever is on the floor, we trust them. No matter who is in there, we are sure that he is going to give his all.”
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