With the title within reach, the Perpetual Junior ALTAs know there's no room to blink.
The University of Perpetual Help System DALTA will look to cement its place in history when it tangles with De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde-La Salle Green Hills in Game 2 of the NCAA Season 100 juniors basketball tournament finals on Sunday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.
The Junior ALTAs and the Greenies will slug it out at 2:30 p.m. with the former looking to finish off what has been an impressive campaign so far and deliver the school's first-ever basketball championship. The latter, meanwhile, will shoot to extend the series despite manpower shortage.
Perpetual took Game 1, but not without a few hitches.
The wards of head coach Joph Cleopas were leading almost the entire game, but the Greenies were just simply defiant and staged multiple comeback attempts.
The battle-tested Junior ALTAs, though, displayed character and composure in the endgame to eke out a 100-96 victory behind Lebron Jhames Daep, JD Pagulayan, Jan Roluna, and Jericho Cristino.
If there's anything head coach Joph Cleopas knows, it's that closing out the series would be the real test.
"Itong series kasi is all about adjustment so we need to adjust ‘yung mga things na kailangan i-improve and ‘yung mga magaganda itutuloy ang namin," he said.
"I will look at the videos and check namin what went wrong and we need to go back in Game 2 stronger."
Benilde-LSGH, meanwhile, is expected to dig deep following the suspension of its third top scorer Arle Podador, who was handed a disqualifying foul in the second quarter following a stomach hit on Aries Borja.
Guillian Quines, who is averaging 24.73 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.18 assists, 3.55 steals, and 0.36 blocks, is expected to front the Greenies offense while Gian Gomez, Dale Ortega, Ram Sharma, and James Ison are all tipped to provide the help.
But even amid another undermanned rotation, LSGH head coach Renren Ritualo said they still have a lot of fight in them.
"We’re gonna fight until the end for sure. We’re not just gonna lie down there and [say] done," Ritualo said.
"Against all odds, it just made us stronger as a team. So, it doesn’t matter who’s there or not [against us]. As long as we’re going to fight for each other, that’s the most important thing."
Catch the action live on GTV and Heart of Asia and the social media platforms of GMA Sports and NCAA Philippines.
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
