Who would have thought?
After finishing the first round with a 3-4 record, with 3 of those losses coming in agonizing fashion as the team coughed up sizeable leads in end game meltdowns, many supporters felt that this was going to be another fruitless season. But then the Archers unexpectedly swept the second round to finish in a tie for first at 10-4. However, due to the quotient system which considers the stats of the 3 teams against each other, NU placed first, forcing us into a playoff with FEU to decide on the second place and the twice to beat advantage.
Ok, we won all our 7 games in the second round. We should already be leading the team stats in most categories, right? Wrong. Let’s look at stats:
First round results:
| Team |
DLSU |
Opponents |
Diff |
| ADU |
70 |
67 |
3 |
| ADMU |
83 |
73 |
10 |
| FEU |
79 |
83 |
-4 |
| UP |
96 |
84 |
12 |
| UST |
58 |
63 |
-5 |
| UE |
83 |
85 |
-2 |
| NU |
56 |
63 |
-7 |
|
Total |
525 |
518 |
7 |
|
Average |
75.0 |
74.0 |
1.0 |
The difference in 3 out of our 4 losses were 5 points or less, of which two games went into overtime (UST and FEU). We were able to put points on the board, averaging 75 ppg, but we also allowed our opponents an average of 74 ppg.
Second round results:
| Team |
DLSU |
Opponents |
Diff |
| ADU |
70 |
69 |
1 |
| ADMU |
66 |
64 |
2 |
| FEU |
75 |
66 |
9 |
| UP |
85 |
63 |
22 |
| UST |
69 |
64 |
5 |
| UE |
75 |
65 |
10 |
| NU |
57 |
55 |
2 |
|
Total |
497 |
446 |
51 |
|
Average |
71.0 |
63.7 |
7.3 |
Difference between first and second rounds:
|
Total |
28 |
72 |
-44 |
|
Average |
4.0 |
10.3 |
-6.3 |
The difference between the first and second rounds is very notable – in defense. Our offense actually dipped in the second round, going down by 4 pppg to 71 ppg, but our defense only allowed an average of 63.7 ppg, a significant reduction of 10.3 ppg. It’s worthwhile noting that the most any opponent scored against us was 69 points by Adamson in an overtime game; regulation ended at 62, which, by the way, is the average of the 6 other teams against us in the second round. NU, which ended up at #1 via the quotient, managed only 55 against us. So we’re winning because of our defense. That’s a testament to the ability of Coach Juno to get the team to buy into and execute his strategy.
And it’s our ability put up an aggressive defense that will help us against our opponents in the playoffs. FEU has superb scoring guards in Romeo and Garcia who can drive or shoot from afar, plus a supporting cast with the ability to hit the long ball.
If our players can stay with the game plans, we should do well. After all, after our win last Saturday against FEU to get the twice-to-beat advantage, we have already exceeded our 4th place finish last year.
ANIMO!!!