By NIKOLE JAVIER
Schonny Winston couldn’t relish being called “Mr. MVP” if La Salle won’t go far in the UAAP Season 85.
That’s because the Archers are in deep trouble – for now.
They need a quick solution to their problem if they are to make it to the Final Four.
The 6-foot-4 guard leads the MVP race after the first round of the tournament which unfortunately saw La Salle slide to a three-game losing streak after its shock 57-53 setback against Far Eastern University last Nov. 2.
With the development, the Green Archers are now toting a 3-5 win-loss record going into the crucial stretch of the elims — causing Winston to feel bad about his current MVP status.
“I’d rather be called champion than MVP, so that’s like [why] I feel bad [about it]. I mean, I’m really honored to be the top candidate, but I really also want to contest for the big crown as well,” said Winston.
The reason for La Salle’s downswing was due to injuries to key players – Winston is yet to fully recover from a calf injury after their overtime defeat to the Adamson Soaring Falcons last Oct. 22.
“After the Adamson game, I strained my calf, so we’re try na take it day by day to recover slowly [with] strengthening. We haven’t decided yet [about playing in the next game],” he added.
“It was definitely a tough loss because we missed a lot of players. We needed to get to [win in this game] to get us really off the hump. At first, we were supposed to play UST and that game was postponed. But now, it’s the FEU game we were looking forward to avenge and we fell short in this game.”
Despite another loss added to their woes, the graduating guard believes that their reserves “showed they can compete” as long as they focus on overcoming bad starts and closing out games “because that’s where you win games.”
In its next duel, La Salle will face the revenge-seeking Ateneo which lost to National University last Nov. 2, in the next round of their rivalry affair on Nov. 5.
“It’s still an Ateneo-La Salle game. It’s still gonna bring the crowd and the fans, it’s gonna bring the best of Ateneo, and it’s gonna bring the best out of our players. So, I already know that’s gonna be a dogfight,” he continued.
“That game. That’s just how it is in the past history. I’m actually looking forward to this game. That’s one of the games I look forward to every year, the La Salle-Ateneo rivalry.”
