MANILA, Philippines—National University can finally kiss heartbreak goodbye as it finally notched a victory in the UAAP Season 82 men’s basketball tournament after a stretch of heartbreaking losses.
After going 0-5, the Bulldogs finally joined the winners’ table with a hearty 61-39 victory over Far Eastern University.
Captain Shaun Ildefonso had one simple instruction to his teammates hours before the 10:30 am tip-off and that was to just “get that win.”
“I think we had a different hunger coming into this game and I told them ‘we’re already 0-5, let’s get that win,’” said Ildefonso in Filipino Wednesday at Mall of Asia Arena.
“I told them this morning that they should have a different drive going to the game.”
The Bulldogs started the season with back-to-back one-point losses to Adamson University, 84-83, and De La Salle, 83-82, then dropped an overtime defeat to University of Santo Tomas, 87-74.
Ateneo then had its hand on NU dealing the lowly Bulldogs a brutal 71-50 beating.
As if releasing all that pent-up frustration, the Bulldogs made sure the Tamaraws were in a world of trouble on offense limiting FEU to a disastrous 15-of-79 shooting from the field and 2-of-26 from deep.
“It’s a good thing that we were finally able to get this win and this is a totally different feeling for us,” said Ildefonso who had eight points, six rebounds, and two steals.