NU’s towering star Jaja Santiago. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
National University’s game plan was simple: Send the ball to Jaja Santiago and let the league’s tallest player take care of the rest.
Adamson, who was on the other end of Santiago’s spikes, simply had no answer for the 6-foot-5 middle blocker.
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“I always emphasize to them that they have to keep on giving the ball to Jaja. She’s tall. She’s 6-foot-5 and it won’t be easy for opposing teams to reach her. You just have to set the ball the way only a 6-foot-5 player can get it,” said NU head coach Roger Gorayeb in Filipino.
“She’s our biggest advantage. We have a player that tall and we have to maximize Jaja as a 6-foot-5 player,” Gorayeb added.
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With her teammates setting her up almost every possession, Santiago had 20 points and hit 50% of her 36 attempts.
Santiago owed her dominant performance to her teammates especially to rookie setter Rica Diolan.
“She distributed the ball really well that’s the blockers really had no idea where the ball is going,” Santiago, who only had 11 points last time, said in Filipino.