De La Salle has no time to waste in its bid for the UAAP Season 86 title following a huge 97-67 Game 1 heartbreak at the hands of University of the Philippines on Wednesday, Nov. 29. 

The Green Archers were struggling offensively in what was supposed to be an all-out championship battle, committing 18 turnovers that led to a nasty 30-point losing margin in the endgame. 

Before entering the finals, the Green Archers never had to trail and recover from a deficit of no more than 10 points.  

La Salle head coach Topex Robinson offered no excuses in the tough loss that saw their title hopes in peril. 

Now facing a defensively focused Fighting Maroons side  in Game 2, the Taft-based squad is looking to cope brilliantly and drag the series to a do-or-die clash. 

“At this point, we cannot really look for more excuses other than really bounce back come Sunday,” said Robinson. 

“It really hurt everybody. But we have to really go through this. Winning a championship is not going to be easy. I guess taking the easy route will give us this kind of result,” he added. 

“It is done and over with. It really tasted sour. Obviously, there is going to be a lot of great minds telling us what to do, but at the end of the day, we stick together as a group.” 

La Salle was riding on an impressive nine-game surge before falling way behind in Game 1 as UP flexed its might through and through until the final minutes of the match. 

“We didn’t get the memo that this is gonna be, as far as the physicality of the game is, so we have to be ready that it’s gonna be the same. At this point, as much as we wanna complain about some things, we just wanna really focus on ourselves,” Robinson said. 

“There’s no time for us to cry over spilled milk,” he added. 

Mike Phillips was seemingly all alone in the fightback, leading all scorers with 12 points in the first half and eventually finishing with 19 points, while UP came through with a balanced attack on both ends. 

To be crowned MVP and La Salle star Kevin Quiambao was also limited to only 11 points and was nowhere near his usual outstanding numbers.

Aside from the big men, even the Green Archer guards couldn’t consistently make stops and rally to get the bearings going for the squad, leading into their eventual collapse. 

“We know what championship basketball is all about, we know what it takes, we just have to really be prepared for that,” said Robinson. 

“We have to go back to trying to figure out how we’re going to get our guys in a better situation to succeed.”

“Whatever happens, we’re going to win together, we’re going to lose together.”