FILE–La Salle Green Archers’ CJ Austria. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—For most of the UAAP Season 86 season, crowds went from cheers to jeers whenever La Salle’s CJ Austria held the ball.
Best believe those same jeers intensify when his shots go in, and in the league’s grandest stage in the UAAP Season 86 Finals, nothing has changed.
Austria still heard the boos of the crowd and after stomaching them for so long, at this point, he just doesn’t mind.
“For me, I’ll just work on the role I have. There will be people who boo when I do my tactics but I don’t mind it,” said Austria in Filipino after the Green Archers’ demoralizing Finals Game 1 loss at the hands of the University of the Philippines at Mall of Asia Arena on Wednesday.
“I’m just doing my role. Whatever I need to do to help, I’ll do it. How I play, my tactics, it’s just how it is.”
Austria finished with just six points but he sure emphasized his offense. After scoring points, he would scream and flex his muscles.
But he said htat wasn’t him trying to be overconfident. That was just the rugged guard’s way of hyping up and energizing his fellow Archers.
“I did those actions to boost my confidence. I show my teammates that we need to boost all our confidence. When I shoot, my teammates get infected with my energy because I want to boost their confidence as well. The others get rattled because we had a lot of turnovers.”
La Salle gave the ball up for a whopping 18 times while UP only fumbled the ball seven times.
But the Green Archers have another chance to live as they try to force a decider at Araneta Coliseum on Sunday.
“We had a lot of adjustments that didn’t click but we’ll see in Game 2. We’ll prepare hard and we’ll do it well so we can push the series to a Game 3.”