Letran opened the NCAA Season 101 men’s basketball tournament with three straight losses.
Jonathan Manalili had enough of it. A winner in the juniors’ division with Letran, Manalili made sure the Knights would finally put a stop to their winless start on Saturday.
‘If I lose, maybe losing once or twice is acceptable. I even told them that I’m a hard loser and I’m hoping they adopt that kind of attitude,’ the rookie guard said in Filipino after their 84-80 win over Emilio Aguinaldo College.
‘We’ve been talking about it every night. Losing is tiring to the point that we don’t even know what it feels like to win. I told them we had to get [the win] today so we can get our confidence back.’
After absorbing yet another loss on Wednesday at the hands of the College of St. Benilde-a 95-80 beatdown- that also served as a wake-up call, Letran played with a sense of desperation to earn a much-needed win. Manalili had his fingerprints in the victory, collecting 12 points and 13 assists.
‘My focus is to win. Whatever I need to do to help my team win, I’ll focus on that,’ he said.
‘I mean, I’m thankful for the assists because it shows that I give [the ball] to my teammates. That’s always where I put focus and I’ll keep doing that in the next game.’