AFTER five straight losses and three overtime defeats, Lyceum finally ticked off its first NCAA Season 101 win at the expense of Jose Rizal University.
To do so, the Pirates had to extinguish the hot hands of Shawn Argente late in the fourth quarter to end up with the narrow 78-76 victory.
READ: Lyceum finally wins one in S101 after surviving JRU in a thriller
At the helm of this close win was Ato Barba and Renz Villegas, who took turns in taking over the match and offsetting the pesky Heavy Bombers.
Barba’s 15 points and six boards, including two triples, broke JRU’s perimeter defense time and again. Villegas, meanwhile, once again took over late-game.
Villegas was all over the place, grabbing five boards in the fourth quarter and assisting on nearly all of Lyceum’s final points, including a swing to a Barba corner triple to take the 72-71 lead.
He followed that up with the fastbreak outlet to Joshua Moralejo, and then the crucial dime to Jonathan Daileg, who swished a triple with a minute and 19 seconds left.
“Sa performance naman namin kanina, binigay lang namin yung effort namin, especially yung mga crucial,” said Villegas who wound up with 14 points, six rebounds, and five assists.
“Andaming nawala rin and dalawa na kami ni Renz na beterano dito. Sa endgame, kailangan na namin maniwala sa isa’t-isa,” Barba added, as he and Villegas have been consistent captains of the ship.
Despite the two establishing themselves as clear-cut main options for the Pirates, however, points for improvement were still very much obvious between them, especially in terms of handling the ball.
“Kailangan pa namin ma-improve. Mga last games namin, puro ganung time din kami nag-turnover,” Villegas said.
Pirate-skipper approves
Through Lyceum’s defeat-laden start, the constant silver lining aside from Barba’s dynamic scoring was the emergence of Villegas as showrunner.
Villegas’ impact has consistently been seen in all of their narrow losses, from going toe-to-toe with Titing Manalili in their previous loss to requiring two overtimes for Clint Escamis and defending champion Mapua to beat them on opening night.
Even with Barba’s status as team captain, he couldn’t deny Villegas’ impact, saying, “Naniniwala ako sa brother ko kasi talagang grabe yung ginagawa niya sa training.”
“Feeling ko ngayong season, talagang breakout season niya. Sobrang laki ng tiwala ko kay Renz.”
Even better, the heavier responsibilities aren’t fazing the Bataan native. With virtually nothing to lose going forward, he is leaving it all out on the floor.
“Bahala na kung saan kami dalhin, basta ako maglaro lang ako para sa team and para sa mga suporta sa amin. Sa amin, sobrang saya dahil nakapanalo na kami and hopefully, magtuloy-tuloy na,” Villegas said.
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