We won!

82-75.

Yes, that was the score of the first game where I guided the COE basketball to their first avidly-anticipated and challenging contest against the team to beat this Palakasan, the SET Tigers.

It was a thrilling match-up that saw 7 lead changes. For the most part, the COE led the contest with as high as 6 points. But the solid play of the contesting team would not allow us to break away.

We relied deeply to our veterans.

Though we never had a practice where all of us are present, their familiarity with each other and their will to win greatly helped us to secure the much-needed victory. A win against CASS tomorrow would ship us back to the championships with a twice-to-beat advantage.

The early part of the game showed a shaky offense from our side with our set play not followed and let the opposing team score 10 against our 4. However, our defensive stops had carried us to finish the first quarter at 17-all.

There was still a sense of rustiness on our part. Few of the five had never played on a tune-up match-up and had to test their plays at game time. Some opportunistic plays never went to our side to have a greater cushion for our lead. Yet, we ended the half with a 42-38 lead.

One good thing about the game is the SET's offense. It's that good but is also that predictable and we take advantage on that area. We may have missed offenses, but we take back on defense.

The third quarter saw us gasping for air and hang for a 2-point lead at the end with a 68-66 mark. The reserves are not that quite well tuned, we just have around 7-8 man in rotation. Tomorrow, we'll look into that and hope that the bench could play solidly. More solid I would say.

Seeing our quarter leads, it does not imply that the game is on our pockets. No! Like I said, we're playing against the team-to-beat this year. Before the game, we talked on this team's strength but we remained to be optimistic that we can pull out a win anytime.

Midway in the fourth, SET started shooting well. And in a while, we found our slim lead vanished, and now facing a 4-point hole with the opposing team leading. Their treys are falling, their jump shots are swishing through the bottom of the net. All we could do is to call a timeout - to catch more air and regroup.

It was until the closing minutes that we caught our pace, they still were leading, now just by one at 75-74.

Now it's our time.

The boys started to stiff their defense and forced uncharacteristic errors on the opponents. The crowd played a great factor too of boosting the tired legs of the Dragons. This is when we started to break-away. So timely and sweet. We managed to take advantage on their penalty situation and level-up our defense.

Astorga's words were as good as a saxophone playing in a silent night, as we are nearing the end mark. "...don't think of our offense, let's play defense", he constantly reminds. And that played a great role for this game. More coaches would say, "defense is offense", and "defense wins a ballgame". It's true.

We had good stops in the game, solid blocks and flashy steals. Toong played a good game of protecting the basket and killing them in his inside offense. The guards, Gueroben, Mira, Campenceño, Ucab and Gascon played well, also the forwards and reserves Jusay, Sanchez and Astorga.

In the end, it was the sound of victory that is more pleasing to hear.

It was a great game, I would say. Add to that the cool and relax atmosphere on the bench. Everyone contributed well in one way or the other. Everyone is equally sharing the spotlight and is looking more to win than to stage for his own show. SET is credited too for playing a nice game and for being so sport throughout the contest.

We still had a couple of games left before the ultimate crown.

But we wanted to start each of those game, where we left off today.


(PS. Now everyone is on the same page as to the others, we reviewed our plays now with each of them present. Tomorrow is a test of character and will. Same as today.

A bunch of thanks to Ariel Genon for the side help. He is a former COE ball player and is one of the veterans who are instrumental in handling the college its one of many basketball championships.)