ADAMSON was left frustrated as the De La Salle Green Archers continued to assert their mastery of the Falcons at the end of the first round of UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament.
The Falcons, who soared to a 5-0 start in the season, lost two games in a row to FEU and to La Salle both in overtime.
Adamson Head Coach Franz Pumaren couldn’t hide his frustrations on the tough loss and only addressed the media with a few words before going.
“We have to pick up the pieces,” said Pumaren, who is already 0-7 against his former team since he took over for Adamson last Season 79.
Jerrick Ahanmisi and Sean Manganti, who carried the cudgels for Adamson by combining for 50 points, were also remorseful of their setback.
“It was a tough, tough game to lose for us. I think there was a lot of stuff that we did in the game and we’re wrong,” said Ahanmisi, who dropped 27 points on five three-pointers including seven rebounds. “And we should’ve won obviously but I don’t (think) it’s just the little mistakes that we made towards the end that we shouldn’t made.”
Manganti, who had 23 points, seven rebounds and four assists, agreed.
“We just couldn’t execute in the end, couldn’t defend, made some bad mistakes at the end,” Manganti said. “We just gotta play better in crunch time, we really shot ourselves in the foot. We lost that game, La Salle didn’t beat us, we beat ourselves.”
But the two Adamson stars vow to bounce back, especially in the more crucial second round.
“I don’t really have much to say, I just wanna beat them the next time we play them the next round,” Ahanmisi said. “We’re just gonna prepare for it and we’re gonna do everything we can to beat them the next round.”
“We’re just gonna prepare for every game that we have — the next game, after the next game, after the next game — coaches are gonna do good to scout other teams like they did in the first round. We’re just gonna take every game one game at a time,” he added.
Manganti also promised to come for La Salle the next round and do better in their succeeding games.
“The only positive thing that came out, it’s only the first round. I wanna beat them so bad, they’re number one on my list I think they know that,” Manganti concluded. “This one hurts but we’re just gonna take it like any other game and we’re gonna go one game at a time, we’re not gonna change are mentality we still think we belong here.”