And if you’re wearing green in the UST QPav or somewhere in Taft watching the game on TV, you probably spent those last few seconds watching through your fingers.
“Here we go again”
This was supposed to be a blowout.
A winless Tamaraw squad, still dragging losses to Ateneo and NU, sitting at the bottom in most statistical categories—this should’ve been a routine checkmark on the schedule. Instead, La Salle found itself two inches away from collapse when Jorick Bautista spun into a finger roll on the baseline that looked destined to tie the game. But the shot floated long, Mason Amos clutched the rebound, and the Archers walked away with a win that felt more like a near-death experience.
So why does this team keep giving back leads when the game tilts toward crunch time?
Let’s rewind.
Five minutes left, Vhoris Marasigan had just shoved the Archers up 70–62. The momentum’s color is green. But after that basket, suddenly Space Jam. Three minutes, maybe six possessions, and La Salle couldn’t buy a basket. Bautista and Jonrey Pasaol pounced with a 7-0 run, suddenly slicing it to a single point in just three minutes.
Cue the go-to option button. The Archers went back to what had been working all game: pounding the post opposite helpless rookie – Kyle Mongcopa. Amos hit a silky turnaround, and Player of the Game Doy Dungo weaved through traffic in the next play for another bucket, nudging the margin back to 74–69.
Brief breathing room until Pasaol splashed a triple, slicing it down to two. Then came the chaos: Amos and Jacob Cortex missed dagger chances, Pasaol sprinted the other way, dished to Bautista, who spun along the baseline, scooped, and overshot.
Amos rebound. Game over.
Exhale.
Instead of cruising and crushing, La Salle needed a break from the basketball gods to put away a team they should’ve buried.
Which brings us here: after three games, all wins against non-contenders, how do you even rank this group?
The question hanging in the air: was Kevin Quiambao’s presence last year a giant patch over every La Salle imperfection?
Or are we just watching the “Hospital Archers” stumble through injury after injury? JC Macalalag missed two games, Kean Baclaan and Bright Nwankwo sat out this one, and Earl Abadam tweaked both ankles in the closing minutes. This is not a roster operating at maximum wattage.
But let’s dig into the numbers. Last season, La Salle mauled the glass with 49 rebounds a night. Through three games this year, that’s down to 43. That’s a problem. The good news? The turnover plague looks like it’s clearing. From nearly 20 giveaways a game in Season 87, the Archers are coughing it up only 14 times per contest in Season 88. Progress.
And yet—this doesn’t feel like a team that knows what it wants to be. Offensively, they’re hunting for a constant. Last year, KQ was the gravitational force who made everything easier. This year, there’s no go-to guy (yet), no offensive pattern that you can hang your hat on. Defensively, the brand identity is slipping too. La Salle’s pressing almost full game, but they’re just fifth in steals and forcing 14 turnovers. That’s… fine. Not elite but not scary.
All of this gets magnified on rivalry Sunday, when the Archers goes into battle against the other side of Katipunan. Ateneo, 3–0, suddenly buzzing again. They’ve got their one-and-done spark plug Kyamani Ladi, a blur with the ball who can score from everywhere, plus weapons in Jared Bahay, Dom Escobar, and the old steady hand, Shawn Tuano. For the first time in four years, La Salle enters this rivalry game as underdogs.
So here we are.
The Archers have to figure it out, and fast. Find a rhythm, find a constant, rediscover that snarling defensive identity in the paint and out on the edges. Otherwise, the season might just keep feeling like that FEU game—hanging on for dear life, waiting for a shot to rim out.
LET US WIN ON SUNDAY
ANIMO LA SALLE!
BEAT ATENEO!!!!
