GREEN MEANS KEEP GOING
The crown stays with La Salle—at least for now.
But the Archers were more relieved than joyous after Kevin Quiambao waxed hot late in a 76-75 victory in Game 2 of the UAAP men’s basketball championship series on Wednesday.
“I don’t know what happened, what transpired but we’re so grateful that we get to see another day and get to play another game of championship [basketball],” La Salle coach Topex Robinson said.
One of the things that happened was University of the Philippines (UP) going cold from the stripe when it mattered the most.
And those misses allowed the Archers to force the series into a deciding Game 3 on Sunday.
Those flubbed freebies allowed La Salle to ride on Quiambao’s clutch baskets in front of 17,112 screaming souls clad in green and maroon at Mall of Asia Arena.
The Gilas Pilipinas mainstay, who received his MVP trophy earlier in the day—the second of his career, finished with 22 points and nine rebounds. His three-pointers late in the fourth sparked a rally that had the Archers fighting back from a nine-point deficit that felt much bigger because of the way the game was played.
Quiambao said he wanted to atone for a lackluster Game 1, where he scored just a point in the second half where UP pulled away to draw first blood in the series.
“After that Game 1 loss, I wasn’t able to sleep for two days,” he said. “I really studied all my mistakes from Game 1.”
It wasn’t just Quiambao who felt anxious heading into Game 2.
“We had that conversation yesterday … We labeled the emotions and we said ‘If you aren’t worried, nervous, hurt or frustrated it means that you are not human,” Robinson said.
Visibly emotional
“You label it, you acknowledge that it’s there because sometimes you deny like ‘No, no I am not nervous,’ but the more you struggle, the harder [it gets] so we all acknowledge it,” Robinson added.
But what mattered La Salle is back on equal footing with UP, with the crown on the line in Game 3.
This was the fourth time in as many seasons that UP found itself losing Game 2 of the series.
And for a while, it looked like the Maroons would close it out.
But after taking a nine-point lead, UP came face-to-face with the might of La Salle’s MVP.
Quiambao used a step back to create space from the defense of Jacob Bayla and drain the first trey. He later fired another triple in front of the towering Quentin Millora-Brown, who had given UP its last taste of the lead.
“I wanna be clear that KQ is just one of us. When we were down and out, these guys just [encouraged] everybody [to not] give up, just keep playing,” Robinson said after the wild finish.
“They said they wanna compete. We didn’t even talk about winning the game just talked about we’re gonna compete.”
Quiambao was visibly emotional after the final buzzer.
“I think [I was emotional] because I took ownership [of the game] and the responsibility over what would happen to the team because I’m one of the leaders,” he said.
Mike Phillips aided Quiambao with 18 points and 12 rebounds. The energetic forward scored the final basket of the game with 53.1 seconds left.
From there, the Archers watched as UP’s Francis Lopez flubbed his free throws that kept their one-point lead intact. Quiambao missed his free throws, too, but UP’s chance to end the series turned into a brick by Gerry Abadiano at the buzzer.
“[We’ll be] making sure that they’re going to be ready for Sunday’s game. And I guess we’re just going to be approaching it the way we used to approach it. This is the second time we’re going to play in a Game 3 [in the] Finals and at this point, we don’t have to worry about it yet,” Robinson said.
“But it’s going to be an exciting ballgame. Whatever the result … so it’s just going to be an exciting Sunday for everybody.”
