LA Salle coach Derick Pumaren is happy to have one more shot at making it to the semifinals of the UAAP Season 85 men's basketball tournament.
Getting past lowly University of Sto. Tomas with an undermanned squad, Pumaren hopes to have key players back as La Salle takes on Adamson in a playoff for the No. 4 spot.
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"I'm really proud of the boys. We've been missing guys, but they've been playing solid basketball in spite and despite of things na nangyayari sa team namin and we just got to keep fighting and hopefully good things will happen to us," said Pumaren after the Green Archers came back from nine-points down to beat University of Santo Tomas, 77-72, on Wednesday.
Schonny Winston is still dealing with his calf injury that saw him play a grand total of 22 seconds in the last three games.
La Salle is also waiting to get clearances for Michael Phillips and Kevin Quiambao, who sat out the UST game due to unspecified illnesses.
"As I told my coaches, 'When will we get a break? When will we get a lucky break?' Ang masama, we get the news before game time," he lamented. "When Michael was not going to play, we got it right before the game. Kevin is under the weather, we got it this morning."
"Hopefully, Michael's test will have good results. We just have to run some tests. Kevin, hopefully gumaling na rin, but he practiced yesterday, he played well but nagkasakit. Hopefully, the break we need, we’ll be able to get it. Sana the Lord will give us a chance to make up for that short turnaround and prepare for Sunday."
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