La Salle coach Derrick Pumaren against Adamson during the UAAP Season 85 men’s basketball tournament. Photo by Tristan Tamayo / INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines – A pre-season favorite, La Salle has fallen short of expectations so far at the UAAP Season 85 men’s basketball tournament after a 3-4 record at the end of the first qualifying round.
The Green Archers ended the opening round with a tough loss in extra time to the Adamson Falcons, 86-84, on Saturday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo as they fell into a three-way tie with Adamson and the University of the East in fourth place.
La Salle coach Derrick Pumaren admits his teams don’t follow their defensive strategy and play inconsistently.
“Well, we are having a hard time right now. Until we play the way we should play, until we start playing defensively, and don’t try to get past the other team, I think we’re going to have a hard time,” Pumaren said Saturday after suffered the second loss in a row.
“We couldn’t do it in the second round. We dropped a lot of quick points and a lot of second chance points. We have to defend better. That’s what’s happening right now with the team. We didn’t play defensively.”
La Salle fell to the defending champion University of the Philippines on opening day before beating the University of Santo Tomas and overturning arch-rivals Ateneo. But the Green Archers came back with a losing streak after losing to the Red Warriors.
Victory over Far Eastern University got La Salle back on track before losing to National University, and Adamson capped the first-round campaign.
Heading into the second round, which begins next week, Pumaren wants the Green Archers to settle after a tumultuous performance in their first seven games.
“It’s a concern, but like I said, in the second round we just need to pick up momentum from the start. We just have to play more consistent basketball, the La Salle basketball that we should be playing,” the veteran coach said. “We have to play game by game, quarter by quarter, owning possession. We just have to work our way up. “
“The game still starts at the prologue. We had to play a 40-minute match and that was what we had to do in the second half. We have to work our way. We know we’re down there, but it’s not the end of the season for us. However, we have to move because round two will be our last chance,” he added.
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