Well Archers. If you think this week was tough, the real challenge still lies ahead of us. We are approaching our crucial games. The loss to Adamson was actually more important to us that the loss last Sunday, because UE won against Adamson. Our game against UE now becomes a must win for us to catch up with them. Look at the standings. If you notice, the field is bunched up into three (the front runners Ateneo and FEU with identical 7-1 records), the middle of the field (UE 5-4, UST 4-4, and La Salle 4-5), and the tailenders (UP and NU 2-6, and Adamson 2-7).

It’s been said that 8 wins will get us to the final 4. The first crucial tiff is UP on Saturday. With our morale at an all time low following those 3 successive losses, UP might have a chance at upending our Archers. If we lose to UP, we lose ground to the third group, just half a game ahead of them; our only hope then is to sweep the remaining games for an 8-6 record, or lose one more to any team and win …

I was able to catch the second half of the game. From the 1st quarter stats, the Archers dug themselves into a deep hole with a 20-9 deficit, something they could not climb out of. They had the attempts on basket. They just couldn’t make the shots. This is not to take away anything from Adamson. Part of the reason for the low percentage shooting was their interior defense. It was they who had the team defensive mindset.

I was with a couple of La Sallites whom I didn’t know, who commented about my article that we could blow them away in this game. Did I want to crawl under a rock for my prediction? Well of course not. Why? Part of the article read “They are beginning to know who will shoot, where and when, and how. It’s just a matter of execution of our offensive patterns. Usually, you will know the offensive flow of the game on game time itself. This is the reason why I commented that we can blow Adamson out of the court this time.” Obviously we …