Unfortunately for us, our team lost but we still forced the game to a deciding set and in our hearts, we still won.
Yesterday, it was UP Men's Basketball Team's game against the defending champions De La Salle University. I actually planned to watch it at home but my sister called me last Friday night and said that we can still get tickets for the game. Being the impulsive person that I am, I agreed to go to MOA arena and watch the game.
I was scrolling my Twitter feed just before we went to MOA arena yesterday and I saw this tweet from UP MBT rookie point guard Jun Manzo:
It was exactly what I believed in yesterday in our volleyball game the day before. Nothing is impossible - you just have to believe.Walang imposible sa taong naniniwala 🙏🏻 #UPFIGHT— Jun Manzo (@JkManzo13) September 23, 2017
I was tempering my expectations - DLSU having a perfect record so far and with Ben Mbala back into the fold, I was just hoping for a miracle win at best or just at least a close game. We were there just to cheer our hearts out for the team since I really believe that this can be the team that can put UP back to the Final Four after so many years.
The game started quite as what people expected it to happen. We scored the first points with a 3 point shot from Juan Gomez de Liano but the Green Archers just stepped on the gas pedal after that and built a lead over the Fighting Maroons. The quarter ended with DLSU ahead by 9 points - DLSU 27 - 18 UP.
A more composed UP entered the court in the second quarter. They outscored DLSU by 13 points this quarter and headed into halftime break with a 4 point lead; 47 - 43. What made this quarter sweeter was the fact that almost at the end of this quarter, Rob Ricafort scored his first 2 points in the season with a shot from a pass from Paul Desiderio who slipped near the baseline. Rob battled his way to play for UP after being declared ineligible due to the age limit by the UAAP board but a TRO was released by the court to allow him to play.
May I just say here that the UP Pep Squad had an awesome halftime performance which I think was not shown on TV.
The 3rd quarter was just like a see saw battle between the two teams, with no team having the clear advantage. This is also when the UP crowd was on high gear as well - cheering on the team point after point after point. I also watched the UP - UST game 2 weeks ago which ended with the clutch 3 points by Paul Desiderio. The crowd then was wild. In this game, the crowd was larger and in number evidently but was outnumbered by the DLSU crowd. But we cheered our hearts out. The quarter ended with UP ahead only by 1 point, 66 - 65.
*Sorry for the blurred pic. It was hard to get a picture while shaking with excitement and singing UP Naming Mahal after winning this game.
This is a huge win for UP - not just for the players but for the whole community as well. As this blog post started, you should always believe in your self so you can win in any battle in life. With a good performance in the pre-season tournaments, I really believe that this team is special. I hope that the whole community - the students, the employees and the alumni - would also start believing and supporting this team. We have nothing to lose here, we have been in the dumps for so long and now we have started to taste victories that shows us the big hearts our players has, we owe them the support they need. We will always be one UP community.
After all, we only start losing when start to stop believing,
No comments:
Post a Comment