BEN Mbala, who emerged as this year’s top MVP candidate, said the defending champion La Salle Green Archers needs to work on their defense.
Mbala said this after he opened up on what went right and what went wrong for his Archers after the Ateneo Blue Eagles escaped with a 76-75 win over them Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“I’d say it was our defense. We are not the defensive minded team that we were last year, and that’s what we need to change,” said the 6’8” Mbala at the end of their first round campaign in the 80th UAAP men’s basketball tournament.
At the end of the first round, he is solidly in front with 98 points, with Ateneo Blue Eagle top gun Thirdy Ravena a far second with 66 points.
Adamson’s Papi Sarr is third (65.166), followed by Jay Alejandro of National University (62.143) and Alvin Pasaol of the University of the East (61.00).
The Blue Eagles’ defensive screens in the dying seconds worked wonders for the Loyola dribblers in their effort to score a basket with less than 3.9 seconds to go.
Mbala said he expected Ateneo’s defense to be tough in the closing minute and that it would be his teammates who would win the game for them.
“Unluckily, my teammates were not able to knock down a shot. And it’s part of the game,” added Mbala, who averaged 30.4 points, 11.8 rebounds, one assist and 1.2 steals.
Ravena was protecting the shaded lane when Kib Montalbo bungled an attempt, and Ben Mbala ran out of time as he tried to get past Ravena’s screen with his drive as time expired.
Nieto canned in two charities with 3.9 seconds to give the Blue Eagles a one-point edge, which turned out to be the final count.
“After the first round, there’s time to work on our game, team chemistry and defense,” said Mbala, who had 18 points for La Salle, with his two charities in the last 1:03 allowing the Archers to move in front, 75-74, for the last time.
He said they played poorly even though they had better numbers than the Blue Eagles.
The Green Archers average 46.3 percent on their field goals were actually playing well with their 50 percent shooting.
And the Blue Eagles still won despite being at 39.44, which is way below their average of 44.2 percent.
“We really played poorly. And then, we got the last-second trap. We did not execute well. We paid the price. In a game versus Ateneo, we can’t afford to play like this,” said Mbala.