Gerry Abadiano certainly took to heart his coach's advice.
Over the past few years, the Battle of Katipunan has delivered the goods.
And, on Sunday, the UP Fighting Maroons and Ateneo Blue Eagles again engaged in an epic clash, with the Season 84 champs getting the better of the Season 85 champs, 65-60, in front of over 17,000 fans at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Guard Gerry Abadiano, who was counted on to step up with UP missing the services of CJ Cansino and JD Cagulangan, showed out, scoring a game-high 22 points for the Fighting Maroons on top of three rebounds and two assists.
“Sobrang happy kami kasi napaka-important ng laro na ‘to,” Abadiano said in the postgame interview. “Alam naman natin gaano katibay na team ang Ateneo.”
Abadiano, of course, spearheaded UP’s third quarter uprising that saw the league leaders turn a 32-30 halftime advantage to a 49-39 lead heading to the final canto. And, yes, Abadiano was at the forefront of it all, hitting big threes and contested pull-ups to the delight of the UP faithful.
But what was shaping up to be a runaway victory soon turned into a cardiac finish, with Ateneo unleashing a fiery fourth quarter run to tie the game at 54 no thanks to some costly errors and headscratching shot selection on the UP side.
At that point, the Fighting Maroons had to dig deep and take to heart coach Goldwin Monteverde’s simple pregame advice:
“Sinabi niya sa ‘min bigay lang namin best namin. ‘Yung basketball hindi naman ‘yan perfect e, magkakamali at magkakamali kami,” Abadiano shared. “Basta ibigay namin ‘yung best namin, kung anuman ‘yung outcome, magiging thankful kami.”
That is exactly what happened. The Fighting Maroons made some mistakes in that fourth quarter, but they never stopped competing. They never stopped fighting.
And, in the end, they held on to avenge their first round loss to the Blue Eagles.