ANIMO!
Forget Sunday. Forget Game 2. Forget the UAAP Season 88 elimination round, where La Salle finished as the fourth seed.
On Wednesday, Vhoris Marasigan was consumed by a burning desire to be remembered as a hero, not as someone who missed a championship game-winner a few nights before that had the Green Archers going through the proverbial wringer.
Consider that objective as mission accomplished as the tough-as-nails guard fueled La Salle to the title after trouncing University of the Philippines in a Game 3 to remember before more than 24,000 screaming souls divided by green and maroon at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“That (flubbed) shot of mine, that’s all done! My teammates told me, it’s all done,” an emotional Marasigan told the Inquirer right after their 80-72 win over the Fighting Maroons. “They told me to forget it. We still had a Game 3.”
And what a Game 3 it turned out to be for him and the hard-fighting Archers.
“I bounced back. I took my confidence back because my coaches told me to keep my composure,” he added, as white confetti rained down on him and the rest of the Green Archers.
On paper, Marasigan didn’t look like La Salle’s main man in the most important game of the season. In fact, he only finished with 10 points, two steals and an assist.
But four of his total came timely for the Taft-based squad, which regained the crown and went up, 2-1, in its trilogy with UP.
When the Green Archers trailed late in the payoff period, 67-66, Marasigan sank a midrange jumper at the 2:59 mark to put the Archers up, 68-67.
Marasigan then sank another clutch bucket plus a foul with 2:15 left in the game, as he left the game because of fouls shortly, but not after shoving the Archers ahead by four.
Coup de grace
The cavalry stepped in.
In poetic fashion, the guys who barely played in the latter half of La Salle’s season were the ones who put the nail in the UP coffin.
Kean Baclaan and Mason Amos, who both suffered MCL tears in the first round of the tournament and only returned in the Final Four, combined for six points—all from the free throw line—to keep the Maroons at bay.
“I’m so happy I’m almost speechless. All of my teammates gave an amazing effort for us to get this win,” Marasigan said.
Everyone on the La Salle side got the spotlight shining on them, with Mike Phillips singing his UAAP swan song as a champion and Finals MVP.
In the title-clinching win, the graduating big man finished with a monster effort of 25 points and 18 rebounds.
Amos, who got the start, finished with 11 points, four assists and three rebounds.
Rey Remogat gave it his all for UP, finishing with 21 points. Francis Nnoruka’s 16 points and 15 rebounds went down the drain, while graduating guard Reyland Torres finished his UAAP career with 11 points.
La Salle’s Season 88 crown is its 11th overall in the men’s basketball division.
