Waylon Galvez
National University mentor Pat Aquino admits that pressure is mounting for the Lady Bulldogs to come up with two more wins in the Finals to formally complete a another record setting season in the 81st UAAP women’s basketball.
NU has already set the league record for consecutive wins when it won its 74th game last October, and is now of track of smashing another record in the UAAP as it eyes a fifth straight title.
“Of course, there is pressure. There is also fear… fear of failure just like the rest of the team,” said Aquino, who has steered NU so far to four successful title runs that started in 2014, during the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at Tapa King in Cubao, Quezon City.
“But for me, I think that is OK – being afraid – because together as a team we consider it as a challenge and together we’ll work hard to achieve our goal of winning another title,” added Aquino, a former player of the UP Fighting Maroons in early the 90s.
The Lady Bulldogs share the record with the Far Eastern University Lady Tamaraws (1950-53), the University of the Philippines Lady Maroons (1980-83), the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigresses (1987-90) and the De La Salle Lady Archers (1999-02).
NU set the record of 74-0 with a 96-57 win against UST last October 27, and eventually finished the elimination round with a perfect 14-0 card that improved them to 78-0.
The win streak of the Lady Bulldogs started in Season 77 on July 13, 2014, and the record of 74-0 eclipsed the previous mark of the Adamson softball team from 2010 to 2016.
“It’s already a dream season for our team,” said team skipper Jack Animan. “So hopefully we can end that by setting another record, a fifth straight title for NU in the UAAP.”
NU is already waiting in the best-of-three finals series, and will face either FEU or UST.
The twice-to-beat No. 2 Lady Tams will clash against the No. 3 Tigresses on tomorrow, and a win by FEU will start Game 1 on Saturday. If UST wins, the finals will start on December 5.
“We are ready for the finals against any team. We just continuing what we are doing… fortunately a (college) team from Taiwan just arrived and we’ll have a few games with them to keep us in shape,” said Aquino.
