UV coach Belano frustrated with Green Lancers’ lack of effort in Unigames semis

The defending Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) champions University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers faltered in their bid to bring home the bacon as they were waylaid by a determined Ateneo-B squad, 53-79, in the semifinals of the 18th FilOil University Games yesterday at the University of St. La Salle (USLS) Coliseum in Bacolod City.

Afterwards, champion head coach Felix Belano did not mince words in chastising his team’s efforts yesterday.

“Pinagalitan ko ang mga players. ‘Low-batt’ ang efforts sa team kaya na-frustrate talaga ako,” said Belano, who guided the squad to four straight wins in this competition before falling short against Ateneo-B.

Belano added that he felt his players grew complacent after beating Ateneo-A earlier and thought they were just going to sweep the former five-time UAAP champions.

They were rudely awakened yesterday as 2012 Cesafi Rookie of the Year-MVP Wowie Escosio and import Steve Akomo got into foul trouble early in the game while perimeter stalwarts John Abad and Alfred Codilla could not get things going.

Those, coupled with the dominant performance of Ateneo’s own reinforcement Ikeh Chibueze, eventually spelled trouble for the Green Lancers.

“We really need to improve our execution and defensive rebounding. More so, ang attitude towards the game, na dapat hindi mag-relax. Dapat 100 percent ang effort in every game,” Belano said.

UV has a chance to redeem itself today as it guns for third place honors against the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Growling Tigers, which lost to the defending UniGames champions National University Bulldogs, 63-68, in the other semifinals pairing.

In spite of the daunting opponent, Belano believes that they can get the job done against UST, headed by UAAP Mythical Five member Karim Abdul and Kevin Ferrer.