Mendoza: Magsanoc is new toast in NCAA caging
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Saturday, October 27, 2012
HOW can a team win with only a total of 39 points in 40 minutes of play in a basketball championship showdown? That’s practically one point scored per minute.
No squad can ever win with that, unless we are talking here of midget basketball, if not kinder caging stuff.
On a given night in the PBA, 39 points can be scored by James Yap, or Jeff Chan, or even Jason Castro.
In the NBA, the likes of a Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James can post that figure in a single game.
Even Nico Salva from the “five-peat” UAAP champion Ateneo can also come up with that output, not to mention the fiery Kiefer “Keep The Faith” Ravena from the super-deep Blue Eagle lineup.
So again, where will a team go with its total of 39 points in a titular clash?
To purgatory, if not nowhere land.
So, to see Letran score only 39 points on Friday against San Beda was a perfect recipe for disaster, an instant formula for failure.
It was bizarre to say the least.
This was the championship. The NCAA crown was at stake.
How come Letran could only come up with such a measly output?
Was voodoo at work here? Did the devil dupe Letran? Witchcraft crafted in favor of San Beda?
The first quarter scoring was bad enough. Only 10 points for Letran, 7 of those from Kevin Alas, the king Knight.
Eerily, Letran was 4-of-19 in that quarter, allowing San Beda to post an 18-10 bubble.
But if you think that was a totally un-championship-like performance, what about Letran’s outputs in the second and third quarters?
The Knights had a measly 7 in the second as the Lions sped to a 34-17 halftime bulge.
You think that was it?
Wrong.
Letran had 8 in the third as San Beda erected a 45-25 bubble with a quarter left. With 4:01 left in the game, San Beda had become unreachable, 62-31.
Essentially, defense did it?
From the opening whistle up to the very end, San Beda threw a suffocating full-court press. Amazingly, they sustained it all game long.
“Every morning, we woke up at 5:30 to train,” said Ronnie Magsanoc, the rookie San Beda coach. “The boys deserve to win.”
Indeed, hard work has always been the key to success.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 28, 2012.
Sports
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