San Beda University is now ready to look ahead to its last assignment in the NCAA Season 97 men's basketball tournament elimination round on Friday: Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
And Red Lions head coach Boyet Fernandez is beaming with optimism that the positives from their crucial win against the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde on Tuesday will rub off on them when they tackle the Knights.
"It's a bounce back win and hopefully it will carry us over in our game against Letran. It was a very crucial game for us," Fernandez said after they escaped the Blazers, 67-63.
San Beda is coming off of a crushing loss to Mapua University, which was their first defeat of the season.
"The loss that we had from Mapua was really tough for us. I think, for the last three days medyo ang lungkot ng bubble namin," Fernandez added.
"But we told them that it was a character test for all of us kasi nga talo kami, it's how we can bounce back on the next game which is Benilde."
According to Fernandez, they treated the game against CSB as a knockout game, even if they're already assured of at least a play-in spot as they want to head to the playoffs with a twice-to-beat bonus.
"We considered this game as a knockout match for us because if we lose this one, we can't have the chance to make it to the top two," he said.
"Benilde did a good job today, they came back from 12 or 16 points down, credit to coach Charles (Tiu) and his staff as well as the players."
Should San Beda win over Letran, it has a great chance of finishing at top two. Otherwise, they have to hope that Mapua falls to Lyceum on Wednesday.
—JMB, GMA News
