On their quarterfinals win last November 27 at the Mall of Asia Arena against the Jose Rizal University, Head Coach Olsen Racela of the University of Perpetual Help System DALTA said postgame that their defense will be the reason why they will win games and accomplish their long-term goal of making it to NCAA Season 101 Men’s basketball Finals.
“We pride ourselves on the defensive end.“
In the 81 to 74 win of the Altas last Thursday, the former Head Coach of the Far Eastern University said that their team’s defense was vital in winning the clutch game as well as moving on to the semifinals round of Season 101.
“Well, not just this game but all throughout our season is yung depensa namin. We pride ourselves on the defensive end. And I think the stats will show that and yun ang sinasabi ko sa kanila na kailangan pangatawanan namin yung depensa.”
With the outstanding defense shown by the Altas, they were able to diffuse the Bombers and not allow them to have the lead at any point of the match.
UPHSD led by as much as 16 points while JRU only came close and trimmed the lead to just 3 points in the final moments of the final quarter.
The 2nd year mentor for the Altas then reiterated to the media that they just need to play solid defense next time for 40 minutes to avoid any last-minute meltdown.
“Ilan ba, we gave up how many points to [JRU]? Total points? 74. We limit teams to 70 or a line of 60. We didn’t do a good job with that, pero we just have to learn to finish games and play for 40 minutes.”
The win of Perpetual didn’t just allow them to reach the Final Four, but they also made another history as they also broke their 3-year semifinals absence, as the last time they made it this far was back in Season 97, which was in 2022.
Prior to this, in the elimination round the maroon and white squad made history for the first time in 21 years (since Season 80 in 2004), as the Altas finished with the top seed in their group (Pool A) with a 9-4 record, earning a valuable twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals.
Now, the Olsen Racela mentored team will prepare to face the Colegio de San Juan de Letrán at the SMART Araneta Coliseum this December 2 (Tuesday) at 11:00 AM for their Best of Three Semifinals clash.
