COLLEGE of St. Benilde coach Charles Tiu admitted his wards simply lost to a better team — to the reigning two-time champion Letran — in Game 1 of the Big Dance.
“They are a championship team for a reason. So, I don’t know why everybody, even coach Bonnie even said kami ang favored. No way kami ang favored,” Tiu said. “You can see they are so ready for this moment, while my guys were kind of panicking and getting a bit out of focus.
“In the big moments it is something that you can’t teach, and they have to experience (that). So, hoping for the next game, maybe they will calm down a bit more,” he added.
Tiu spoke after the Knights scored an 81-75 victory over the Blazers in the first game of the best-of-3 title battle for the 98th NCAA basketball tournament crown.
Maybe the Blazers, playing for the first time in the finals after 20 years, still lack the savvy much needed in these games.
Tiu thought otherwise.
“I think they (Knights) got free throws a bit too much. They had 26, we only had 11, and they’re more physical than us and we couldn’t make our free throws either, so that didn’t help,” Tiu said.
“Free throw namin hindi nasho-shoot, sila they had dalawang lucky bounce pa sa free throw, tumama pa sa taas ng board. Parang the basketball gods wanted them to win the game, but we still competed.”
CSB tries to forge a deciding Game 3 when it collides with Letran anew in Game 2 on Sunday, Dec. 11, at The Arena in San Juan.
The winner-take-all duel, if necessary, will be on Dec. 18 at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
Letran is seeking to pull off a three-peat for the first time since 1982-1984 behind a team led by PBA great Samboy Lim.
