NEW COACH Bong Dela Cruz had a tough UAAP debut as his Growling Tigers were crushed by the National University Bulldogs, 40-59, in their season opener at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum last July 13.
A championship-caliber team heading into Season 77, the Tigers committed a total of 26 turnovers, 17 of them during a disastrous second half where NU pulled away for good.
The Bulldogs turned a 16-point lead after three quarters into a 21-point margin with less than a minute left in the game. They capitalized on UST’s poor field goal shooting, a mere 24 percent compared to NU’s 42 percent.
“Our team has many scorers, but [they] failed to deliver during the game,” Dela Cruz said.
The rookie coach expressed his disappointment over the Tigers’ poor performance, saying they lacked team effort as shown by their three assists throughout the game.
“The team was too relaxed and had bad executions during the second half. Those expected to deliver in the game were missing,” he said.
Trailing 9-18 in the middle of the second quarter, the Tigers unleashed a 12-3 run to tie the game at 21 before settling for a 21-25 deficit at the half.
Despite outrebounding NU, UST had trouble converting easy baskets resulting in many fastbreak opportunities for the Bulldogs.
Karim Abdul paced the Tigers with a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds while Aljon Mariano added 10 markers. Gelo Alolino led the Bulldogs with 13 markers. Josiah Darren G. Saynes
