Game Two’s 21 shades of woes
Archers feed on ’13 fightback, sink arch rivals
La Salle skipper Kib Montalbo was part of the Green Archers team that won the 2013 UAAP hoops crown in dramatic come-from-behind fashion against University of Santo Tomas. So when he told his current teammates in the midst of a tremendous adversity in Game Two against rival Ateneo that all’s not lost yet, they listened.
“I looked at their faces and they were down. Not to brag about it, I told them ‘I’ve been in this position before in 2013 and we were down and the odds were stacked against us then.’ What I wanted them to do was believe and want it more,” he recalled telling the low-spirited Archers in the face of Ateneo’s swashbuckling start.
Believe and want it more they did. Going all out, the Archers chipped away Ateneo’s 21-point lead and completed the comeback for the ages with a masterful 92-83 victory that kept their title retention hopes alive.
“Pumasok yun sa isip nila (They embraced what I was saying) that’s why we got the win. I told them to never give up, whatever the circumstances, whether we’re down 20, down 30, just stick it out as a team,” he said.
Montalbo is drawing from his experience in Season 76 finale, wherein DLSU bucked the odds and prevailed.
UST took the first game then, 73-72, but the Taft-based crew bounced back hard and won the next two, 77-70 and 71-69, to snare the crown. The clincher, which needed an extra time to settle, showcased La Salle’s fighting spirit as the Archers clawed back from a 15-point deficit in the first half and outlasted the Tigers in a furious battle to the finish.
Having picked themselves up from their Game One loss and leveling the ongoing series against Ateneo, Montalbo is hopeful DLSU gets the same result as 2013.
“Hopefully we can ride the momentum going to Game Three,” he said.