MANILA, Philippines — Don’t depend out these underdogs simply but.
The College of the East and Ateneo staked their claims as Last 4 contenders within the UAAP Season 87 males’s and ladies’s basketball tournaments, respectively, as an eventful preliminary first spherical got here to a detailed.
Main the way in which of their playoff pursuits are Wello Lingolingo and reigning girls’s MVP Kacey dela Rosa, who had been hailed because the Collegiate Press Corps UAAP Gamers of the Week for the interval of October 2 to six.
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Lingolingo confirmed off not solely his vary but additionally his coronary heart with a pair of clutch performances that despatched Blue Eagles and Adamson Falcons reeling.
Wello Lingolingo, proper, celebrates after hitting the game-winner on the buzzer to push UE previous Adamson in UAAP Season 87 males’s basketball.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.web
The UE mainstay saved his squad from the jaws of defeat with a buzzer-beating bucket of their first-round finale over Adamson, simply 4 days after a 13-point outburst in 19 minutes of play towards Ateneo.
The Purple Warriors standout hit stellar averages of 11.5 factors on 67 % field-goal taking pictures and an an identical 67 % from three, with 3.5 boards and three.0 steals in back-to-back victories to seize solo third place on the finish of Spherical 1.
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5 straight victories after an early 0-2 gap matched UE’s longest win streak in 9 years at 5 and set the group’s finest begin to a UAAP marketing campaign in 17 years since their undefeated, Paul Lee-led Season 70 run.
READ: UAAP: Purple-hot UE Warriors with ‘again to zero’ mentality in second spherical
Lingolingo bested his teammate Valuable Momowei, La Salle duo Kevin Quiambao and Joshua David, UST’s Mo Tounkara and NU’s Kenshin Padrones for the weekly plum.
On the finish of the day, UE’s go-to sniper made certain to depart no stone unturned as he seized his largest second but as a Purple Warrior.
Right here’s the interpretation in easy English:
“Coach Jack [Santiago] says that you just shouldn’t pressure the sport, simply let the sport come to you. That’s what I’ve been doing; I don’t take any compelled pictures. After I couldn’t shoot threes, I actually regarded for methods to contribute to the group, particularly on protection,” Lingolingo mentioned.
“He provides me belief and confidence in what I can do, so I’m actually grateful.”
Ateneo’s Kacey Dela Rosa throughout a sport towards NU within the UAAP Season 87 girls’s basketball match.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.web
In the meantime, the ladies’s division noticed its reigning queen do MVP issues for the Blue Eagles.
Dela Rosa proved to be a bona fide double-double machine by dropping 19 factors and 13 rebounds in a masterful 90-62 win over UE earlier than her 21 markers and 13 boards fell ever so quick in a slim 58-66 loss to NU.
Katipunan’s 6-foot-4 fortress, who leads the ladies’s basketball MVP race after Spherical 1, registered her sixth and seventh double-doubles of the season to maintain her 4-3 Ateneo aspect on observe for a 3rd straight Last 4 look.
READ: UAAP: Kacey Dela Rosa frontrunner for ladies’s MVP anew
Therefore, it was enterprise as standard this week for an in-form Dela Rosa who normed 20 factors, 13 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2.5 steals, and 1.5 blocks per sport.
The Blue Eagles’ first-round chief in factors, rebounds, and blocks outclassed UST’s Kent Pastrana, NU rookie Cielo Pagdulagan, and Adamson’s Kem Adeshina for the weekly quotation.
Midway by means of the match, Dela Rosa believes sky’s nonetheless the restrict for a way way more Ateneo may give in its bid for ladies’s basketball supremacy.
“I feel yung efficiency ko, not sufficient pa to assist the group and to [reach] our aim. Marami pa akong kailangan trabahuhin din para mas maka-help pa sa group namin,” dela Rosa mentioned.
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“Iniisip ko rin yun as a bonus para sa group namin kasi kung naka-double group sa’kin, siyempre, could isang mao-open. So ayun lang, shoot lang nila… I feel kaya naming mag-champion.”
