Lyceum of the Philippines (LPU) may not have met their goal of tying last season’s win total, but Head Coach Bonnie Tan was satisfied with their modest finish following their stint in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Season 90 seniors’ hoops fest.
The league’s youngest member racked up a 7-11 (won-lost) card at season’s end, and maintained their tag as the league’s giant slayer by defeating number one team Arellano University with a 101-96 result on Wednesday to give the Chiefs a date with San Beda College at 4:00 pm Friday at The Arena in San Juan City.
“Hindi natin na-meet yung goal to reach the Final Four, pero nacomplement with a good finish this season with a win against a top contender this season,” said the veteran LPU mentor Tan, who concurrently serves as part of GlobalPort Batang Pier’s coaching staff.
In Season 89, the team wound up with with an 8-10 (won-lost) record, their best finish since joining the league as a guest team in 2011.
During the first round, LPU appeared to be an early favorite to finally land a place in the playoffs, finishing with a 5-4 mark to tie both Perpetual Help and Benilde for fourth place.
However, injuries and unforseen circumstances intervened in their second round run, stalling their team’s goal of making the Final Four in their final probationary year.
“We didn’t have senior players at the final stretch of the season. We only had an eight player rotation in our final game. Whatever happened this season, at least we were able to finish the season on a winning note.”
This season, center Joseph Gabayni took on as the leader of their depleted lineup, consistently working as a double-double machine and finished the season with norms of 12.6 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per outing – easily becoming a shoo-in as the league’s top rookie.
Dexter Zamora, stepping up as point guard due to the sudden absence of senior guard Shane Ko during the latter part of the tournament, steadied their ship with averages of 11.2 points per contest.
Despite missing the Final Four, Tan vowed that his squad will return to the NCAA with a stronger lineup with the quickly maturing play of their newcomers this season, with their core joining this season’s Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) D-League wars.
“The coaching staff will evaluate our players’ performance this past season and identify the lapses we did. We’re raring to bounce back to prove ourselves to be a regular member in the NCAA.”
Aside from Gabayni and Zamora, among the promising players that will return to the fold next season will be Wilson Baltazar, Paul Soliman, Allyn Malabanan, Jeremiah Taladua, Jebb Bulawan, and 17-year old Cameroonian reinforcement Guy Mbida Essono.
