Black: Now we have to do it the hard way

The Philippine Star
Monday, September 17, 2007

With its 28 turnovers, Ateneo would have lost to any other team on any other day.

The Blue Eagles, therefore, have no one else to blame but themselves for the unbelievable 96-88 overtime loss to the NU Bulldogs last Saturday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

“We didn’t seem to have any sense of urgency considering what was at stake. We paid the price,” said coach Norman Black of the loss that halted Ateneo’s surge in the 70th UAAP season.

Yes, Ateneo turned the ball over 28 times, perhaps the most for the team this year, allowing NU to score 31 points in return. The Bulldogs had 14 turnovers, giving up just a dozen points.

In a close game, one error could mean a lot.

A win would have given Ateneo the No. 2 spot, a hefty twice-to-beat advantage in the semis and a great chance of advancing to the best-of-three finals against unbeaten University of the East.

Now, Ateneo, Black admitted, has to do it the hard way.

“We knew that if we beat NU it would have been easier for us to get to the finals. Obviously, my team was not ready to take advantage of that. Now we have to do it the hard way,” he said.

The hard way means a couple of do-or-die matches, the first one against archrival La Salle tomorrow for the No. 2 spot. A loss will lead to another knockout match with the No. 4 team.

It took Black almost two hours after the game to step out of the stadium with members of his coaching staff. He had a gym bag over his shoulder, and a generous smile on his face.

He spoke to a couple of scribes at the dimly-lit parking lot.

“The fortunate thing is we still have a chance. That’s the most important thing. We still have a chance to make it to the finals. Had we won this one it would have been a lot easier,” he said.

Black said the Blue Eagles will be back. But at least on that gloomy Saturday evening he had to deal with losing a game everybody expected them to win.

“That’s life,” the Ateneo coach said.

Then he walked away into the night. – Abac Cordero