TOPEX Robinson would be the last man to chastise Vhoris Marasigan for his missed three late in La Salle's 66-63 Game Two defeat to the University of the Philippines on Sunday.
"We have rule number one in our team: Use your best judgment," said the Green Archers shot-caller. "We're always going to stick to what we agreed upon as matured individuals here and that shot could have brought that house down."
With the Fighting Maroons precariously holding on to a two-point lead, 65-63, in the last 40 seconds of the game, Marasigan had the guts to put the Taft side on his back and go for broke.
READ: Vhoris vows to bounce back in La Salle's last shot to dethrone UP
Unfortunately, the Quezon native's trey rattled out of the rim, as State U equalized the UAAP Season 88 men's basketball Finals with a three-point escape.
Robinson, though, maintained his trust in Marasigan despite the latter's 4-of-16 shooting clip, saying, "As long as those shots are the shots that Vhoris was practicing, we're going to be ok with that."
"We always say, players win games for us and they will also lose games for us. That's not going to change even if this is Game Two of the Finals. Yes, we're going to make mistakes."
Heart of a champion
What the champion coach pointed out, though, was the experience of UP, and not Marasigan's late miss, as he lauded the opposition's sense of urgency in forcing this series to a decider on Wednesday.
"The experience of UP showed up earlier. Those guys really played their guts out. We have to really give credit to them and they really poured out everything that they got. As Jacob [Cortez] said, they beat us to those 50-50 balls," he said.
"But again, that's the beauty of winning Game One, you still have another chance to give yourselves a chance to win a championship."
With one final game to decide the ultimate victor in this title trilogy, Robinson could only preach patience for La Salle, emphasizing that the grandest goals entail the biggest of sacrifices.
And that even if they're just 40 minutes away from reclaiming the throne, the Green Archers will still have to work hard and gut it out against their new-age rivals.
"We just have to be more patient about it and just keep on slugging it out with them," he said.
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