Humble in victory, National University’s power forward Troy Rosario credited the individual efforts of his teammates for playing its best defense of the season.
The 6’7” veteran, named as the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 77’s Most Improved Player before game two of the men’s basketball finals, displayed great footwork and upper body strength in converting hook shots, finger rolls, and short.
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To top his Herculean performance, Rosario hauled 14 boards, nine of which came from NU’s basket.
“Those 50-50 balls, we have to get them if we want to win,” Rosario said in Tagalog.
This, for him and coach Eric Altamirano, was one of the keys for NU’s 62-47 shellacking of Far Eastern University to tie the best-of-three men’s basketball finals series at 1-1.
This view was also shared by FEU’s head coach Nash Racela.
“They got the 50-50 balls. Even if we were active in blocking their shots, our blocking opened their rebounders to get the putback,” Racela explained.
For Rosario, it goes beyond strategy and tactics.
“Yung nine offensive rebounds? Effort yun (Those nine offensive rebounds? That’s effort),” he quipped.
“I think ito na ang start ng finals naming (I think this is the start of our finals),” he concluded.
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