Ateneo Blue Eagles’ Jared Brown in the UAAP Season 86 men’s basketball tournament. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — Jared Brown rose to the occasion for Ateneo as he set the tone in the Blue Eagles’ dominant victory that saved their title-retention campaign and helped them reach the UAAP Season 86 men’s basketball Final Four .
Wanting to bounce back from his bad shooting night against La Salle last Saturday, Brown stepped up when it mattered most for the Blue Eagles, dropping 14 of his 20 points in the first half to jumpstart their wire-to-wire 70-48 victory over Adamson.
“I think I was just getting the shots. My teammates were just finding me the right spots, and it was my job to just knock them down,” said Brown, who shot 4-of-7 from beyond the arc to go with four rebounds and four assists. “I didn’t really have a good shooting game last game. So I made sure I was I needed to hit those today. So yeah, luckily they went in.”
The Ateneo rookie said they just followed coach Tab Baldwin’s game plan to advance to the Final Four against top seed University of the Philippines.
“Our coach has been preaching, like the game plan and just following what they say and I think today we really followed it to a tee and we executed what they wanted and it resulted in the scoreboard and and our execution,” Brown said.
Baldwin lauded Brown and the Blue Eagles for showing a sense of urgency in a do-or-die game.
“We didn’t do anything special. Jared just takes opportunities as they arise. And you know, he said, luckily his shots fell there not a lot of luck. You know, kid works extremely hard on his shot, he brought a very good shot to the program,” said the four-time UAAP champion coach. “And he works hard on it every day. And everybody’s gonna have an off day. But, you know, more times than not, if he gets an open look, you can start writing crooked numbers on the score sheet.”
“He is a very humble guy. And he gives credit to his teammates and as he should, but at the end of the day, he’s got a knock the shot down, and today he got looks, and he was able to knock them down,” Baldwin added.
As they face the No.1 Fighting Maroons in another win-or-go-home match, Brown seeks to carry their momentum when they try to keep their title defense alive.
“I think today’s game was kind of good. We have momentum coming into Saturday. All we have to do Saturday, just our preparation for that just to follow what our coaches want us to do and execute it as perfectly as we can,” he said.