MANILA, Philippines — Don’t rely out these underdogs simply but.
The College of the East and Ateneo staked their claims as Remaining 4 contenders within the UAAP Season 87 males’s and ladies’s basketball tournaments, respectively, as an eventful preliminary first spherical got here to an in depth.
Main the way in which of their playoff pursuits are Wello Lingolingo and reigning ladies’s MVP Kacey dela Rosa, who have 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 in addition 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.internet
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 in opposition to Ateneo.
The Purple Warriors standout hit stellar averages of 11.5 factors on 67 % field-goal capturing and an equivalent 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 crew’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 go away no stone unturned as he seized his greatest second but as a Purple Warrior.
Right here’s the interpretation in easy English:
“Coach Jack [Santiago] says that you simply 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 photographs. Once I couldn’t shoot threes, I actually seemed for tactics to contribute to the crew, particularly on protection,” Lingolingo stated.
“He offers me belief and confidence in what I can do, so I’m actually grateful.”
Ateneo’s Kacey Dela Rosa throughout a recreation in opposition to NU within the UAAP Season 87 ladies’s basketball match.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.internet
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 brief in a slender 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 monitor for a 3rd straight Remaining 4 look.
READ: UAAP: Kacey Dela Rosa frontrunner for ladies’s MVP anew
Therefore, it was enterprise as ordinary 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 recreation.
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 way of the match, Dela Rosa believes sky’s nonetheless the restrict for the 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 crew and to [reach] our aim. Marami pa akong kailangan trabahuhin din para mas maka-help pa sa crew namin,” dela Rosa stated.
“Iniisip ko rin yun as a bonus para sa crew namin kasi kung naka-double crew sa’kin, siyempre, could isang mao-open. So ayun lang, shoot lang nila… I feel kaya naming mag-champion.”