That has to feel good.
The kind of good that makes you want to kick open the locker-room door, crank up the music, and replay the final five minutes until you pass out from happiness.
Because this wasn’t supposed to be easy.
The Green Archers came into the game without their do-it-all King Archer, Jacob Cortez. JC Macalalag and Vhoris Marasigna were game time Topex decisions.
They had more than uncertainty to deal with, a sharp-shooting UST team raining record 17 threes, and the very real possibility of watching the Growling Tigers pull off another first-round ambush.
For 32 minutes, UST had La Salle exactly where it wanted them.
Then Joaquin Tovera found another gear. Henry Agunnane dominated the paint. And the Archers transformed a six-point fourth quarter deficit into an intense fireworks display that sent the Tigers tumbling down the España wall.
DANG.
La Salle didn’t just survive without its King Archer. It found a Turbo button.
THREE MINUTES OF BLAZING THREE-POINT HELL.
With 7:47 left, UST was threatening to replay the first-round script, holding a 67–73 lead and making the Archers look like a team still searching for answers.
The Tigers had the momentum. La Salle had a storm to survive.
Enter Turbo Tovera.
The super rookie repeatedly sliced through UST’s perimeter defense, found small gaps in the traffic, and delivered the ball to a resurgent Agunnane for back-to-back baskets inside. Suddenly, the six-point deficit was minced to 71-73.
Two baskets. Two plays possession. And the weather was starting to feel green.
Then JC Macalalag slipped free off a screen and buried the triple that put La Salle ahead, 74–73.
The green gallery exploded, and at that moment, the game changed from a rock fight into a demolition.
Doy Dungo connected from deep. Tovera joined the party. Macalalag fired again. One after another, the Archers launched four consecutive triples, each one landing like another knockout uppercut in UST’s face.
BANG. BANG! BANG!!! AND ONE MORE — LOUDER.
In the swift space of a few possessions, the Archers had turned a six-point deficit into an 85–74 lead with 4:47 remaining.
That’s a merciless 18–1 run.
Let that breathe for a second.
UST had spent most of the afternoon making a UAAP record for 17 threes.
Then the Archers found their rhythm, and suddenly the Tigers were defending a team that had uncovered their offensive rhythm, shooting touch, and its sense of humor.
The final four minutes belonged to La Salle. UST struggled to find an answer from the perimeter against the Archers’ 1–3–1 zone, while Agunnane patrolled the interior with the sort of ferocity usually associated with Mike Phillips on a particularly personal mission.
The Tigers had been knocking on the door.
The Archers answered by taking the hinges off.
SPEAKING OF HENRY: THE AKOWE PROBLEM HAD A SOLUTION
Before Season 89, one of the big questions surrounding La Salle was how the team would handle the development of UST’s formidable foreign student-athlete, Akowe.
Among the expectations surrounding Agunnane was that he could be the answer.
There was a line circulating among La Salle insiders before the matchup:
“Nung nagharap sila, di makagalaw si Akowe.”
Roughly translated: when they faced each other, Agunnane can contain Akowe.
On this afternoon, that prediction looked less like locker-room confidence and more like a scouting report delivered from the future.
Agunnane turned in his best performance on both ends of the floor, bringing the physicality to bother Akowe, the discipline to stay connected, and the energy to make every interior possession feel like a negotiation UST wasn’t winning.
Akowe finished with just 11 points, shooting 2-of-10 from the field.
That’s not merely a quiet afternoon. That’s a big man being made to labor for practically everything.
And the timing matters. La Salle needed someone to establish order inside while its offense was trying to find its footing. Agunnane supplied the resistance, the rebounds, and the baskets that allowed the Archers to stay within striking distance before their perimeter explosion.
The threes will dominate the highlight reel. But the comeback needed an interior anchor before it could become a shooting gallery.
Agunnane provided one.
JOAQUIN “TAFT TURBO” TOVERA: ROOKIE, MEET THE KEYS
Now, about the speedy and streaky kid who zapped the game upside down.
Imagine being a rookie, averaging roughly 15 minutes off the bench, and spending your early UAAP days playing behind Jacob Cortez — the guy La Salle trusts to run the show.
Then imagine being asked to help lead the team through a pivotal game without him.
No pressure, right?
Tovera answered with 15 points, seven rebounds, and nine assists, shooting 45% from the field in 28 minutes.
Those are massive King Archer numbers.
But the box score only tells a shade of the story.
Tovera didn’t just stack statistics. He changed the weather of the game.
Being a lethal threat from the perimeter forced UST to respect him beyond the arc. His ability to slither through a crowded lane kept the defense from comfortably loading up on La Salle’s other creators. And when the Tigers shaded toward him, he found teammates in perfect shooting positions to punish them.
The result was an offense that suddenly had room to breathe and space for the ball to flow.
Agunnane got fed inside. Dungo found space. Macalalag found daylight. The Archers’ three-point barrage wasn’t just a collection of difficult shots going in; it was the payoff from a rookie who kept forcing the defense to make uncomfortable choices.
That is the difference between a player who fills a stat sheet and a player who changes a game.
Tovera did both.
Nine assists from a rookie stepping into the void left by Cortez? That’s more than a nice story. It’s a glimpse of what La Salle can look like when its backcourt has another creator capable of putting pressure on a defense.
Of course, one monster game doesn’t mean the kid has solved every problem. Cortez remains Cortez, and the demands of leading a contender don’t disappear because a rookie has one spectacular afternoon.
But Tovera has made the conversation more interesting.
La Salle may have lost its King Archer for the day. It didn’t lose its ability to create.
It found another driver.
And this one has a turbo button.
THE REAL WIN: LA SALLE FOUND ANOTHER WAY
The most encouraging part of this win isn’t simply that La Salle beat UST. It’s how the Archers did it.
They absorbed a difficult stretch without Cortez. They found production inside through Agunnane. They got a major lead performance from Tovera. And when the game reached its decisive moments, they turned ball movement and defensive pressure into an unstoppable weapon.
That is the kind of adaptability teams need over a long season.
The caveat? One comeback doesn’t erase the questions that came before it. La Salle still needs to prove it can execute consistently, avoid digging itself into holes, and sustain this level of composure against different defensive looks.
But this was a meaningful answer to one question: Can the Archers find another gear when their usual engine isn’t available?
Against UST, they did.
And they did it with a rookie at the controls and Agunnane guarding the house.
NEXT STOP: ATENEO. ON HALLOWEEN.
Now comes Ateneo at the Araneta Coliseum on Halloween.
A rivalry game. A holiday built around things that go bump in the night. And a La Salle team coming off a performance that should give its fans a little less reason to reach for the bottle — and a little more reason to believe.
The question is obvious.
Can the Archers turn one Halloween treat into a sweep of the Blue Eagles?
Ateneo won’t be UST. The matchup will bring its own problems, and La Salle can’t expect to solve them by simply waiting for four straight triples to fall.
Halloween is supposed to be about scares.
For Ateneo, the frightening part may be that La Salle has another weapon to unleash.
And this one goes by Taft Turbo.
BEAT ATENEO
ANIMO LA SALLE!
