By Jerome Lagunzad
University of the Philippines guard Jun Manzo heeded the call of Fighting Maroons coach Bo Perasol to help ease the offensive load off top gun Paul Desiderio’s shoulders.
But not even his career performance of 19 points could prevent the UP from absorbing a painful 73-71 loss to resurgent Adamson on Wednesday that put the Fighting Maroons out of the “Magic Four” for the first time in the UAAP Season 80 basketball tournament.
With another tough challenge in the mold of dangerous National University awaiting them on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena, the 5-foot-9 Manzo is urging his teammates, notably their shocktroopers, to do their fair share in their bid to get back on track.
“Kailangan talagang mag-step up ‘yung bench namin kasi mahihirapan kaming mga starters,” he stressed, perhaps lamenting a big 27-14 disadvantage that the Fighting Maroons backups had against their Soaring Falcons counterparts, including game hero Sean Manganti.
Behind the combined exploits of Manzo, Desiderio, Javi Gomez de Liaño and Mali center Ibrahim Ouattara, UP got off to a strong start and even built a lead as high of 13 points in the opening frame, only to see that crumble in the face of Adamson’s strong fightback ignited by Jerrick Ahanmisi in the second period.
While the Fighting Maroons relied mainly on their starters in the tight finish, the Soaring Falcons got ample contributions from veteran Rob Mañalang, who came off the bench anew and accounted for eight points, including a go-ahead triple with 62 seconds to play.
Not to be outdone was the 6-foot-5 Manganti, who was subbed in late and came through with a pair of big plays, capping his eventual game-winning putback with a solid defensive stop on UP’s last ditch attempt in the waning seconds.
Perasol could only hope to have such lift off the bench.
“If I have a team that can sustain what we start, then I can say then we can be in the Final Four. But that is a challenge for a team that’s growing,” he said.
“In fact, we have to start some of my strong guys offensively, hoping the guys coming off the bench can sustain it. It’s really difficult to get something from them. Other coaches know we’re not as deep as other teams and it’s a challenge for us.”
Still, Perasol has instructed the Fighting Maroons to pick up the pieces quick and take care of their task at hand against the Bulldogs, who are also aching to snap a three-game losing skid.