La Salle big man Justine Baltazar. UAAP PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Justine Baltazar is eager to show all the things he learned from his Gilas Pilipinas stint under coach Tab Baldwin when La Salle takes on rival Ateneo in the UAAP Season 84 men’s basketball tournament on Saturday at Mall of Asia Arena.
Baltazar is set to face his former national team coach Baldwin and ex-teammates Ange Kouame, SJ Belangel and Dave Ildefonso as the Green Archers put their unbeaten 3-0 record on the line against the three-time defending champions, who also won their first three matches of the season.
“I will apply all the things I learned from them in our game,” said the 6-foot-7 center after putting up 20 points and 11 rebounds in La Salle’s 75-65 victory over Far Eastern University on Thursday.
Baltazar, who was among the cadets in Gilas’ successful showing in the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers June last year and in the Belgrade Olympic Qualifying Tournament in July, vowed to give his best on his mission to lead La Salle in going up against the Baldwin’s program that also contributed on his development as one of the top big men in the league.
“We will do our best. This is a different story. They are no longer my Gilas teammates. It’s a battle of school pride here in the UAAP,” said the graduating slotman.
“We will stick to coach’s game plan, prepare hard and improve whatever we did in our past games,“ he added.
For Kouame, the Blue Eagles are going to treat their match against the Green Archers just like any of their previous games, where they stretched their winning streak to 29 straight matches dating back to October 2018.
“We approach every game the same way, we respect our opponents and we’ll play the right way, as a team,” said the Ateneo center. “Coming to the next game, it will be the same mentality and we try as much to cover as much mistakes and learn from it and keep moving forward.”