AFTER five years, La Salle is back in the Final Four.
And coach Derick Pumaren is just happy to tick the first box on the Green Archers' to do list.
"That is really the immediate goal ng team for the last two years," he said after La Salle's 64-51 win over Adamson on Thursday.
It's the first time since 2017, when Ben Mbala was main man and Aldin Ayo the coach, that La Salle made it to the semifinals.
"Even though we've been doing yung mga Zoom training, ang immediate goal namin is to make it to the Final Four and we're really happy to make it and achieve that immediate goal," said the mentor, who came on board and returned to his alma mater in January 2020.
The Green Archers locked up the No. 3 spot with their eighth win in 13 games, but Pumaren remains dissatisfied knowing that there are still things that the team can improve on.
To him, La Salle's current form still won't pass if it wants to challenge the top teams like Ateneo and University of the Philippines that he challenged his team to step up their game.
Deschon Winston and the Archers improve to 8-5.
"We just have to work our way up. I know it's gonna be a tough task for us, but we just have to take the game, one game at a time," he said.
This win against Adamson should be a good start as Pumaren demands consistency from his players to perform at their A-game for the whole game.
"We played with effort, the effort that I've been demanding from my boys for 40 minutes and we showed it today. We worked really hard defensively for 40 minutes," he said. "We know that, as Schonny [Winston] said, it's gonna be a dogfight. We just gotta be establishing our defense there. We wanted our defense to dictate the game and I think we did a great job doing that."
Pumaren reminded the Green Archers that making it to the Final Four is one thing and competing for the championship is a different beast of its own.
"It's not over yet. Hopefully we're not gonna be too happy about making it to the Final Four," he said.
"We don't wanna stop here. We just want to go on and try to do good, to do well in the playoffs."
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