Tin Cayabyab (left) and the Lady Bulldogs kept their foot on the pedal all game long against the Lady Falcons. —UAAP MEDIA.
One hundred is history. How many more wins the National University (NU) Lady Bulldogs consecutively is a mystery. So coach Aris Dimaunahan reminded his wards to mind the present.
On Saturday, it was another foe, another new number to a seemingly untouchable streak: 101.
NU crushed Adamson, 100-66, in the UAAP women’s basketball tournament to keep within the team’s culture of staying on an even keel no matter what happens.
“We have this thing of [everything] having [a lifespan of] 24 hours,” Dimaunahan said. “Whatever it is, [regardless] if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, after 24 hours … we move forward. That’s the mentality of our team.”
“[I’m] very happy because [we practiced what] we preached, that we cannot live in the past, we cannot look too far into the future [and] what we have to do is stay in the present,” Dimaunahan added. “And the present is Adamson. So we didn’t think of anything today except how to play well, how to move and how to beat Adamson today.”
That turned out to be bad news for the Lady Falcons, whose only hope of surviving Saturday, it seemed, was if the Lady Bulldogs were still hung over from annexing a wildly celebrated 100th straight victory last Wednesday.
And right at the onset, NU showed it was already all over that high.
The Lady Bulldogs zoomed to a 31-13 lead at the end of the first period and were well on their way to a 101st straight victory.
Tin Cayabyab led five NU players in double figures with 19 points, eight rebounds and three steals. Karl Ann Pingol added 19 and nine rebounds while Angel Surada made all her five attempts from the field to finish with 12 points and 10 boards.
NU has now won its first five games of the season while pinning loss No. 3 on Adamson, which has won twice so far.
Dindy Medina led Adamson with 28 points on 9-of-17 shooting.
After jumping to a big lead, the Lady Bulldogs kept their mental game in check, making sure they would not ease up against their foes.
“Sisingilin kami nun sa dulo ng tournament, pag pinabayaan yun (We’ll pay the consequences at the end of the tournament if we don’t take care of that),” Dimaunahan said.
Earlier, La Salle escaped a pesky Far Eastern University, 65-58, to improve to a 4-1 card.