
By NIKOLE JAVIER
Ateneo head coach Tab Baldwin expressed dismay after absorbing a 83-78 setback against rival De La Salle in the UAAP Season 85 men’s basketball tournament on Sunday, Oct. 9, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
In the middle of redemption from last season’s championship beating, the Blue Eagles couldn’t have picked up the worst time to hand the Green Archers their first win over them since November 2017.
“Really tough game, but I can’t help, I guess, being the way I am, I can’t help looking at my own team and understanding our deficiencies in this game that I think were unnecessary,” said Baldwin.
Tipping his toe on the game assessment, Baldwin refused to be unfair and credited the Green Archers for putting pressure on his team which he deemed as tactician Derrick Pumaren’s doing.
“It’s another sort of classic, really. Hate to come out on the losing end of that one. I think we hold ourselves responsible. But in some way, that’s being unfair to coach Derrick and La Salle, they played a hell of a game and a really tough game,” continued Baldwin.
Ange Kouame and Kai Ballungay both finished with double-double performances in the losing effort. Kouame gathered 22 points with 12 boards while Ballungay added 19 markers of his own and 10 rebounds.
Ballungay, for his part, got his nerves out of the way despite being on the bitter end of the result.
“Just coming to the game, there’s a lot of excitement and preparation that went into it just because it’s the rivalry game. I know that the outcome wasn’t something that what we wanted. But I feel like there’s a lot that we need to take away from it. A lot of positives that we can take to the next game and move on later in the season,” Ballungay said.
With “self-imposed composure” standing in their way, Baldwin was concerned to be left with a scoreline far different from what he had expected.
“But I think that we did things as a basketball team and individually that are going to be extremely detrimental to our capability of vying for a championship. If we don’t fix that, this moment, then we can start looking at Season 86,” Baldwin added.