Let us start with these thoughts:
NU threw their heaviest punches in the final quarter—fastballs, haymakers, you name it. 66.7% from the field. 66.7% from deep.
They tried to end the Green Archers right there, in the last gasp of the game.
And yet, somehow, La Salle didn’t just survive—they stood upright, shoulders squared, eyes locked, refusing to break.
Pure ANIMO. Bone-deep, unflinching, refuse-to-lose basketball.
Jake Figueroa, Jolo Manansala, and Reinhard Jumamoy rained 15 pressure-packed points, each one a gut punch meant to finish the Archers off.
But history tells us what numbers can’t: La Salle refused to bow. The Cool Jacob Cortez took control of the floor like a chess grandmaster in a storm, directing possessions, calming chaos, and keeping his team on the only path that mattered—the Finals.
La Salle stayed upright.
Remained standing.
Always fighting.
But how did La Salle survive this onslaught?
Possessions. Pure will. Pure opportunity creation.
FIFTEEN La Salle possessions in the quarter. NU had nine. That’s not just hustle; that’s a hostile aggressive takeover using sheer hustle and bare willpower.
Four hard-fought offensive boards. Four steals. Six forced turnovers.
The Bulldogs might’ve shot cleaner.
But the Archers earned more basketball.
And now here we are. Standing at the edge of the Finals after a season that should’ve folded under injuries, suspensions, and every curveball the basketball gods could throw. Waiting for us is the familiar monster: UP.
Can La Salle take UP’s best punch?
The answer is already written: we did it before, we can do it again.
Round Two was proof. The Maroons lit up the stat sheet: 50% from the field, 39% from three, 55% from midrange and paint. Numbers above their season averages by leaps. And still, La Salle absorbed, adjusted, survived. Without Kean Baclaan in the first meeting, Mason Amos barely back in the second. No excuses. Just grit.
Spoiler: UP only shot 43% the entire tournament.
This Finals is a different planet.
Physicality spikes.
Crowd noise goes feral.
Cheerjacking antics hit low-life Olympic levels.
And in these moments, you lean on Topex Robinson—the tactician who summons, the motivator who pulls the last reserves from tired legs, the coach who finds the exact emotional switch for his players.
And these Archers? There’s something different about them.
All the flames of all the dramas combined forged the emergence of new heroes and more mature Archers. Vhoris Marasigan, Earl Abadam, EJ Gollena and the rest of the green and white crew, viewed this window as an immense opportunity to get better.
To find that small speck of improvement that could define La Salle’s Season 88 fate.
And all of this, manifested at the best of times.
From the Ateneo survival match to the electric showdown against National U, you exactly know that moment when a voice will whisper “HERE COMES LA SALLE!”
There’s a moment when you sense they got everything figured out.
Execution tightens. Adjustments crystallize.
The green machine starts to slither into its groove.
Coach Topex and his staff have mastered the art of on-the-fly reinvention. Give them one timeout, one sliver of space, and they’ll conjure an adjustment that reroutes the entire game.
And now, after toppling the league’s #1 team and gathering all that momentum into a roaring tidal wave…
WATCH OUT, UP.
WE ARE COMING FOR YOU.
ANIMO LA SALLE!
