University of the East’s Alvin Pasaol is on the cusp of scoring history if the cards go his way in his final game in the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament.
The big scoring forward upped his scoring average to 24.7 after 13 games following the Red Warriors’ 85-72 loss to Adamson University Saturday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Pasaol already has 321 total points this season and even if he’s limited to zero points in the Red Warriors’ final game of the season he’ll still surpass Terrence Romeo’s mark of 22.2 points per game in Season 76.
“I was surprised that I’ll be surpassing Terrence but all the credit belong to my teammates because they trust me that I can score and that I can play on both the offensive and defensive ends,” said Pasaol in Filipino.
As per UAAP’s statistician Pong Ducanes, even if Pasaol is scoreless in UE’s last game of the eliminations against National University he’ll finish the year with a 22.9 scoring average and that’s well beyond the 22.2 points per game mark Romeo had five years ago.
The next hurdle Pasaol has to overcome is Ben Mbala’s Season 80 mark of 26 points per game with the big center from La Salle achieving that average in just 12 games.
Pasaol has to score 43 points to tie Mbala’s record and 44 to become the highest scoring player in the UAAP since 2003—the year that the statistics were tabulated digitally.
UE’s ever-smiling exploits would also make him a viable Mythical Five candidate, the MVP is out of the question since the Red Warriors’ 1-12 record put them at the bottom of the ladder, but Pasaol said he’d rather see his teammates happy than receive any individual plaque.
“I just want to see my teammates happy and that they’re smiling when we’re playing, and they’re sharing the ball to me,” said Pasaol. “We’re already out of the picture but I told them to just fight and if we can steal one more win, why not?”
“Even though we’re out of the picture we’re a happy bunch. We’re just so happy being with each other.”