Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
University of the Philippines’ rookie guard Jun Manzo sent out a tweet hours before their clash against defending champion La Salle saying in Filipino, “nothing is impossible to those who believe.”
The tweet, which carried the popular hashtag #UPFight, was meant to convey the Maroons’ state of mind—a brave, bold statement to say the least, considering the Archers had only lost once since last season when Cameroonian Ben Mbala started playing for the Green Archers.
But with Manzo backing up his words with his heady, clutch playmaking and Paul Desiderio exploding with the finest shooting performance yet by a UP player in more than a decade, the Fighting Maroons brought down the Green Archers, 98-87, in the biggest upset so far of UAAP Season 80 at Mall of Asia Arena.
“We should believe that we will win that’s why I posted [the message] on Twitter,” said Manzo in Filipino. “I felt that the UP should know that we believe we can beat La Salle.”
And now it’s up to coach Bo Perasol to make sure that belief carries them through this season.
“It’s big, but if we can manage this well, the kind of mindset we acquired is important,” said Perasol. “This cannot be a step backwards. We can’t be too emotional and lose our sharpness. We won this but our win against La Salle is the same as a win over UE.”
Manzo played his heart out in a scintillating final period for the Maroons, pouring nine of his 17 points there, while Desiderio sizzled for a career-best 30 points on 6-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc.
The Maroons drilled 16 triples, tying the league-high last set by University of Santo Tomas in 2010.
Manzo’s swagger and energy as well as Desiderio’s incredible shooting rubbed off on the rest of the squad with seldom-used Jan Jaboneta also contributing with a couple of treys in the final period.
The Maroons entered the game on the heels of news that Rob Ricafort had managed to secure a court order that reversed the league decision to bar him from playing due to the age limit.
Ricafort had two points in 10 minutes, but the Maroons had more than enough firepower to survive another big game from Mbala, who finished with 34 points on 4-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc.
Earlier, Ron Dennison and Arvin Tolentino came up big in the second half as Far Eastern U evened its card to 2-2 after rallying past University of Santo Tomas, 78-65.
The Tigers remained winless in four games, despite leading by 10 points early on.