Colegio de San Juan de Letran head coach Bonnie Tan admitted that his team was caught by surprise by the fight San Beda University showed in their thrilling 59-56 win on Friday.
The champion coach shared that they didn't expect for the duo of JV Gallego and Jacob Cortez, in particular, to come up with great outings in a game that could have given the Knights their first taste of defeat this season.
"We were surprised, marami silang mas batang players sa amin pero maayos yung mga players nila," said Tan, whose wards are now on a 9-0 slate heading into the semifinals stage.
"For example, Gallego and si Cortez, he played din good game nung last game nila. And yung mga plays nila and yung mga hindi namin akalain na gagawin nila."
Gallego showed an ability to score in bunches, producing all seven of his points in a short stretch to close the second quarter.
Cortez, meanwhile, had been on the reserve list for much of the season before making his debut recently. He performed admirably in the rivalry game, scoring six points.
Those two Red Lions backed up the play of James Kwekuteye, who led San Beda with 14 points, seven rebounds, one assist, and one steal in the loss.
With the win over their rivals behind them, Letran can breathe a sigh of relief as they successfully accomplished their goal, which was to finish the elimination round as the top seed.
"One of the objectives talaga namin to pero not to sweep ano, pero nabigay eh, but to be number one. Nagkataon lang na we need to win bago mag-one so nagkataon lang na na-sweep namin," Tan shared.
"Hindi na namin alam kung sino makakarating sa fourth but kami, nagawa namin 'yung role namin and na-reach namin yung objective namin and let's see kung sino makakatapat namin sa semis."
—JMB, GMA News
