Well it’s getting near the season of hope. Around two months, to estimate. But as far as Season ’82 Men’s basketball, hope just flew out of the Ynares Sports Complex.
Yes, it sucks. Big time. The results anyway. But not the fight. We fought. Big-time.
You know that game really sums up our season. Up and down. Like a roller coaster. Like an elevator ride. Like children in a see-saw.
We saw stretches of brilliant games and forgettable ones, but let’s reserve this for our season ending summary after the Adamson game. I will try to be comprehensive with that. Let’s stick to this game first.
For the past three games, we always start out very slow. Oh let’s not hold back. We start crappy. And this was the worst start of a basketball game this season. 1 measly point with three minutes to go in the 1st quarter.
But hold on. At the end of that forgettable quarter, we fought back!!!! Don’t you realize that we were only down 10 at 21 to 11? Still positive in my book.
And the fightback continued into the second. A 21-0 counter blast to take the lead. Only a counter 5-0 blast from UP prevented them from ending the half behind.
The second half of the game was an exact replica of the first. They built a 10 point lead again in the third. Of course with our fightback, the ending was cardiac.
It took a backdoor play by UP and a dunk from Kobe Paras, which turned the tide for them.
What happened? Well, some players did not bring their A game. but a few players did.
And LO AND BEHOLD!!!!!! The useless one turned out to be the MOST USEFUL PLAYER in this game.
Thou shall not dunk on The Master ☝️ pic.twitter.com/0CIJrPyLdq
— Go Archers (@GoArchers) October 27, 2019
Nowadays, they measure player value by detailed analytics, translated into influence on how many points the team scored. And BRANDON BATES contributed a POSITIVE 18 for the team. Runner up to him was Encho Serrano with a plus 9.
That means, to those that want to understand, that these two players contributed to 27 points against UP. The rest of the team contributed a negative 30, or points for UP. Thus the 3 point loss.
And did you see that posterize dunk try of Ricci Rivero? DENIED BY BRANDON BATES!!!!!! And 10 rebounds again? Bates for PRESIDENT!!!!!! Cast your votes. Hahaha.
All clean @batesyy__ pic.twitter.com/wHrcvuRZsP
— Go Archers (@GoArchers) October 28, 2019
Notice that I’m focusing on the positives in this game. The players who helped the team, and the furious fightback.
Analytics are good, but should not take away what the other players did for us. Aljun Melecio and Jamie Malonzo. Tried like hell. The fightbacks were really them in particular. The scoring. The The heart. The passion. The grit.
And don’t crucify Andrei Caracut please. I will summarize this season and try to tell you what I really think happened. A lot of trolls are blaming him, but really? There’s an explanation to everything. Not excuses mind you.
This was another game that we lost. Even if UP won it, we lost it more. We had our chances didn’t we? We just didn’t make the big shots.
And so ends the Men’s Basketball Season 82 for us. But not the Animo mind you. We still have a game against Adamson and every game is OUR game.
So support the team in the Adamson game. And this early, THANK YOU ANDREI CARACUT, JAMIE MALONZO, KEYSHAWN MEEKER AND JAMES LAPUT. You wore the green and white uniform proudly and with honor.
Salamat and ANIMO!!!!!!
Meanwhile, try to enjoy the holidays. After all, tis the season to be……whatever you make of it. So enjoy still.
Animo!!!!”’