By CRIS EUGENE T. GIANAN
THE FACULTY of Arts and Letters’ (AB) Women’s and Men’s basketball teams both advanced to the quarterfinals of the Thomasian Goodwill Games after their flawless runs in the round robin stage.
AB Women’s trashed the College of Architecture (Arki), 49-18, on the back their steel defenses.
Arki’s sloppy start allowed AB to gain an early lead, 12-8, with Celine Cordero landing back-to-back field goals with a three-pointer in the first quarter.
Multiple steals and interceptions by Trizia Oliver widened the gap in the second quarter, 29-14, keeping Arki at bay.
An opening three-pointer from AB’s Rain Mabanag preceded a 15-2 run in the third quarter, with Arki failing to get shots in due to AB’s stalwart defense.
The women in blue got away with an 11-3 run in the fourth quarter, with Cordero scoring another three-pointer in reply to Arki’s last field goal of the game.
Team Captain Micah Atienza said the team won because of better camaraderie.
“Kasi ‘yung previous games namin, medyo nangapa pa kami kasi maraming umalis, maraming napalitan, pero ngayon mas buo ‘yung tiwala namin […] Nandoon kasi ‘yung samahan, ‘yung puso, and ‘yung effort. Ayaw naming masayang ‘yung effort ng lahat,” she said.
Atienza added that the women in blue still need to work on their speed, presence of mind, and defense.
Meanwhile, AB Men’s snatched a win against the College of Rehabilitation Sciences (CRS), 73-52.
AB kept CRS well behind in the first quarter, 23-10, with Nicko Bahia laying down the men in blue’s first field goals of the game.
The gap between AB and CRS increased further in the second and third quarters, ending at 60-38 with triple three-pointers from AB’s Paul Lopez.
Team captain Kenneth Bataclan said despite the team being in a good position, they still need to pick up the slack.
“[M]aganda naman ang nilaro at pinakita namin sa 3 games namin kaya kami nanalo siyempre, pero ‘di pa kami contented sa kung ano man ang meron kami ngayon… hindi kami puwede mag-relax just because ‘di pa kami natatalo and sure na makaka–advance kami sa quarters,” he told the Flame.
Veteran player Bahia noted that the team still needed to work on its cohesion.
“Teamwork and team effort […] We want to improve our individual games and build our chemistry sa trainings namin,” he said.
“[L]ahat kailangan mag-step up pa ng game nila. Hindi pa enough ang pinakita namin until makuha namin ‘yung goal namin which is to finally win a chip for AB. [L]ast kasi ata nag-champion AB Men’s Basketball, no’ng 2012 pa,” Bataclan added.
The team captain also called for the support of the Artlet community due to the lack of a substantial Artlet audience in the last match.
“We’re also calling on our fellow Artlets na supportahan kami sa next game namin! [W]e badly need you guys out there to boost our confidence, we’d appreciate it so much […] wala kasi masyado nanonood,” he said.
The games were held at the P. Noval Covered Court. The AB Men’s basketball team will face off against Senior High School on Mar. 27, while the schedule for the women’s team has not yet been announced. F
