Tiu not giving up on NCAA title hopes for Benilde Blazers

MANILA, Philippines -- It's back to the drawing board for College of St. Benilde head coach Charles Tiu.

Tiu on Saturday said that he is still bent on winning a championship for Benilde, after the Blazers suffered another heartbreaking loss in the NCAA Finals.

The Blazers were swept by the Mapua Cardinals in Game 2 of the NCAA Season 100 Finals Saturday, 94-82, which ended the formers’ 33-year title drought.

This is also the second bridesmaid finish for Tiu and Benilde in three years.

After the game, the tactician stressed that he wants to win a title for the college “one way or another.”

“I guess, back to the drawing board. I really wanted to win now so I can rest, but obviously I’m still hungry for a championship here in the NCAA. Hopefully, we can stay with this team and this core. I don’t know the plans of [Allen] Liwag, [Tony] Ynot, but hopefully they stay,” he told reporters.

“For me, I have the PBA, I have Dubai, but obviously, Benilde is kind of like my baby and I really want to win with this school, one way or another. One day, hopefully,” he added.

Tiu is currently an assistant coach of the Converge FiberXers in the PBA.

“With Benilde, I think I’ll probably stay. They haven’t told me otherwise. Obviously, it’s disappointing right now but probably, as of now, as of today, my mind is still focused on winning one.”

Benilde had a scorching start, going up 7-0 in the opening minutes. Mapua, though, climbed back and broke the game open in the second quarter, going up 47-35 at the half.

The onslaught continued in the final two quarters, as the Cardinals’ lead grew to as much as 16 points, 82-66.

After the game, Tiu rued the team’s turnovers, as they finished with 20 against 16 total assists.

The squad committed 16 turnovers in the first half alone.

“It’s something we talked about all week, it’s the one thing we really wanted to address but I thought we were off to a great start offensively already, then we started throwing the ball away, so I don’t know if it’s jitters or what. We can’t make that excuse, they had the experience,” he said.

“If you look at it, it’s more our bad decisions, but you gotta give credit to the defense of Mapua. I wish I had an answer for you right now for those turnovers, but it hurt us the whole finals series.”