THE Southwestern University (SWU)-Phinma Cobras will try to move on from the agony of their defeat at the hands of rivals, University of the Visayas (UV), as they take on the reeling Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U) Wildcats on Sept. 28, 2019 in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. basketball tournament at the Cebu Coliseum.
Tip-off is at 3:30 p.m. with the Cobras hoping to immediately get back on the winning track after getting derailed by the three-time defending champions UV Green Lancers on Thursday night, 71-66, for their very first loss this season.
UV appeared to have found the answer to SWU-Phinma’s skilled foreign player, Lamine Thiam, as they employed physical defense on the latter, at times, flustering the import who ended up with just 13 points on a 3-of-14 shooting.
SWU-Phinma head coach Mike Reyes is hoping that his players have very short memory this time around.
“If we plan to be contenders, we have to forget about last night and play better,” said Reyes.
The Wildcats are in the middle of a struggling campaign so far, as they have lost all four games this season.
In the other collegiate game set at 5 p.m., the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Jaguars try to arrest a three-game skid when they battle the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Panthers.
USJ-R head coach Leode Garcia said the key to breaking out of this losing streak is for his team to be able to sustain their efforts from opening tip until the final buzzer.
“We need to be able to sustain what our game plan is from start to finish. We need to be mentally tough especially in the second half,” said Cortes. “We remain positive of our chances to be able to make it to the Final Four. There is the grace of losing and there’s also the grace of winning. What matters is that we don’t give up.”