La Salle’s Evan Nelle and UP’s Reyland Torres get chippy during Game 2 of the UAAP Finals.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—The moment La Salle returned to practice following a Game 1 beating at the hands of University of the Philippines last Wednesday, coach Topex Robinson knew Game 2 would see a different Green Archers side.
“Having 16 pissed off players during practice really excited me. They were really pissed off that we got clobbered in Game 1 and they really responded. Practice was really tough in those last three days but I really enjoyed watching them and seeing that they won’t just roll down and die,” said Robinson.
“That’s when the fun started for us, when we knew that we could do what UP did to us.”
And that’s exactly what happened.
After an embarrassing 97-67 loss on Wednesday, La Salle bounced back big time with an 82-60 win in Game 2.
La Salle’s Michael Phillips.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
Despite the gratifying victory, Robinson reiterated that La Salle only tied the series up.
“Game 2 is done and over with. The important thing for us is the game in front of us which is on Wednesday. It’s going to be exciting. We’ve never been there as a team so we’ll make sure to enjoy each moment that we’ll play together in that Finals [game.]”
“Come Game 3, obviously there’s going to be a lot of work. We know UP’s going to come out with guns blazing and for us, we’ll just focus on ourselves. We don’t know what UP will do, but we know what we will do,” he added. “We knew it’s going to be hard. We know that winning a championship is going to be hard, playing against the top college team in the country right now is going to be hard.”
Game 3 is on Wednesday still at Araneta Coliseum.
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