Unlikely Bullpup new triple mark holder
For someone coming into his latest game averaging less than four points, Miekho Natinga now owns Season 88 of the UAAP boys’ basketball tournament after a shooting display that shattered a long-standing league record.
The 19-year-old from Bukidnon hit 13 triples and finished with 44 points in leading National University Nazareth School to a 124-41 demolition job of University of the Philippines Integrated School on Sunday at Blue Eagle Gym.
“I just made the most out of the opportunity (to play) that came my way,” Natinga said in Filipino after he broke the record of 10 triples shared by De La Salle University’s Luisa San Juan for women (Sept. 25, 2024, Season 87) and Bulldogs head coach Jeff Napa (August 22, 2002, Season 65), as well as University of the East legend Allan Caidic (1985, Season 48) for men.
“I actually asked coaching staff to take me out of the game because I wanted my other teammates to take their shots,” he went on. “But my coaches just told me to keep taking those attempts.”
Natinga finished with 13-for-22 shooting overall, while the entire UPIS crew was good for just 13-for 55.
“I am just so proud to have a player shoot a record like that,” said NUNS coach Kevin de Castro, also in Filipino. “It’s not every day that you get to coach a player who has this kind of a game. As a coach, I am just so proud.”
The record officially fell at the 3:14 mark, when Natinga had the Bullpups a 112-36 lead as NUNS improved to 3-2. UPIS remained winless in five games.
