Ateneo's ace rookie Jared Bahay doesn’t take delight in his personal milestone as the Blue Eagles stumbled to 3-7 in UAAP Season 87 with a loss to La Salle.
Ateneo rookie Jared Bahay isn’t about to take moral victories as he clinched a personal milestone in the Blue Eagles’ tough 80-65 loss at the hands of the DLSU Green Archers round 2 of UAAP Season 87 on Saturday, October 26.
Bahay, who consistently kept the Blue Eagles afloat until the final minutes of the wire-to-wire loss, tallied a career-best 22 points in the rivalry game.
[RELATED: Kevin Quiambao resets career-high to 33 points as streaking La Salle thumps archrival Ateneo]
But with the homegrown Ateneo product focused solely on getting the victory for the team, there wasn’t any joy in getting his stats — especially since he felt like most of them came out of system.
“[I scored] 22 points pero I'm not happy about it kasi because most of it hindi galling sa system namin,” a solemn Bahay told the media after the game.
“Although pumasok siya, pero ayun nga yung sinasabi ko kanina, [kailangan] mag stick to the plan, kung anong gusto naming shot selection,” he added.
The Blue Eagles have struggled to get anything going within their system, which forced Bahay to take some spot up shots — and while he ended up making the shots, there really wasn’t any long-term benefits for the team.
But as Bahay continued to take in the experience in his first year in the UAAP, he took the tough loss on the chin in the hopes of getting even better moving forward.
“It's a great of a game in a loss. As I said kanina, hindi ako happy sa outcome pero it's a great learning experience para sa team and we hope we can bring these to the following games,” said Bahay.
As it stands, Final Four hopes look dim for the Blue Eagles. But not willing to go down without a fight, Bahay said that he and the rest of the Ateneo team are continuing to believe in themselves no matter what.
Bahay especially hopes for the good of the team — thinking about their seniors in particular.
“I think we still have the chance. We're gonna push more sana makuha namin yung... I think we're gonna work hard para makuha namin yung... I'm not gonna let my seniors Chris [Koon] and SQ (Sean Quitevis) [down], gusto ko pa sila makasama mag laro,” he said.
The Blue Eagles will have their hands filled, though, as they will have to face the UP Fighting Maroons, who have yet to clinch their Final Four spot, next on Wednesday, October 30, still at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.