ROUND ONE REVIEW
Let me guess.
The Green Archers’ fandom has effectively jacked up liquor sales in several areas as the traditional green-and-white way to drown frustrations.
Not unusual. Not the first time, either.
We have seen this before.
Starting slow is nothing new in La Salle’s 40-year UAAP history. Of course, there were seasons when the Green Archers came out of the gates slinging those green arrows with reckless abandon and mercilessly slaying every UAAP creature in sight enroute to sweeping the eliminations.
And then there are starts like Season 89.
Three wins. Four losses.
We beat UE, as expected. NU, in a major opening-day upset. Ateneo, as usual.
We lost to UST, FEU, UP, and Adamson.
Three and four. Tied for sixth and seventh with our Katipunan rivals.
So, the perennial question: should the green nation push the panic button?
Let’s not throw the remote at the television and start emptying those single malts just yet.
There is a perfectly reasonable argument that La Salle could be sitting at 6–1. Against UP, the Archers took the lead with 2:34 remaining. The Adamson game was there for the taking before turnovers began to multiply. Against UST, a friendlier bounce or two on those Jacob Cortez finger rolls, and these might have changed the conversation.
Three close losses. Three close games in which La Salle had a chance to change the final scene from despair to celebration.
But there is a catch. Those games were not lost because we made migraine-triggering turnovers during late game. The debacle began way before the closing minutes.
In all four defeats, La Salle trailed after the first quarter.
Against UST, the Archers were down eight, 24–16. FEU built a 25–13 opening-quarter advantage. UP went ahead 24–17. And Adamson delivered the most damaging opening punch of all, racing to a 23–10 lead.
Four games. Four excruciating early turtle starts.
La Salle spent every one second of those afternoons trying to trim a lead that had grown too early.
That is a particularly exhausting way to play UAAP basketball. Every missed shot becomes a little more expensive. Every turnover gives the opponent another opportunity to extend the lead. Every defensive stop feels less like progress and more like a requirement just to remain in the conversation.
Another scoring streak will feel like scrubbing a fresh wound.
And when you are constantly chasing, the temptation to make something happen becomes stronger. Sometimes that means taking a crowd-shaking three. Sometimes it means forcing a pass in the attempt to make a highlight play. Sometimes it means trying to salvage an entire afternoon in a single possession.
Make no misconceptions about this. The Archers did make their runs. Against UP, made a fierce 4th quarter run and took the lead with 2:34 remaining with that Jacob Cortez step-back triple. Against Adamson, they outscored the Falcons 19–12 in the fourth quarter. They also outscored UST in the second quarter and stayed within striking distance of FEU after falling behind early.
But these were the painful comebacks that ran out of juice in the waning minutes.
Maybe those four defeats really could have produced a different record with a few more breaks. But the slow starts made the margins harder to manage in the first place.
Almost winning, is one of the most addictive illusions in college basketball in the guise of moral victories. It constructs a beautiful alternate universe in which the team is actually doing fine, the coach has made all the right decisions, and the basketball gods are simply conspiring against Taft Avenue.
Maybe.
Or maybe those opening quarters are telling us something.
