SOME players only need to see one of their shots fall to get going.
That couldn’t be any truer for Kevin Santos, a guy who many actually expected to be one of the guys for the young Letran Knights.
But up until Santos hit the go-ahead basket which eventually won the game for Letran against St. Benilde last Sunday, the third-year big actually hadn't made a shot in 14 days.
With restored confidence from there, he finally lived up to his potential on both ends of the floor three days later, as he finished with 17 points and six blocks to lead the Knights to a thrilling 75-73 win over EAC.
READ: Kevin Santos stands tall to lead Letran past gritty EAC
“Yung game sa Benilde, dun talaga ako nakakuha ng kumpyansa,” Santos said.
“Binigay ko lang yung tiwala ko kay coach Allen [Ricardo] talaga. Siya ang nagpapalakas ng loob ko talaga.”
Before getting going, the last time the Kapampangan found the bottom of the net was in Letran's season-opening loss to San Sebastian, where he finished with seven points.
Since then, his minutes dwindled to the low tens, leading to his going scoreless in their back-to-back wins against JRU and Arellano, as well as their loss to Mapua.
Santos was 0-for-5 before his go-ahead basket against the Blazers, but because Ricardo and his teammates' trust in him never wavered, he came through late – finally giving him the confidence boost he desperately needed after playing just 13.4 minutes on average.
“Naging aggressive lang talaga ako sa depensa namin at sa opensa namin. Sinunod ko lang yung sistema,” he answered when asked what changed for him this game.
“Tiwala lang ako kay coach Allen. Basta bubunutin niya ako, ready lang ako palagi, binibigay ko lang 100 percent ko.”
Santos’ time has finally come
Ricardo, for his part, always knew the capabilities of Santos, but it was still on his veteran forward to put it all together.
While he played Santos sparingly before the Benilde game, he always knew that there will come a time when he’ll finally need the services of his versatile big.
When that time came, boy, did Santos deliver.
“Si Kevin, andun na siya sa point na nafa-fine-tune na niya yung sarili niya inside the court,” Ricardo said.
“Alam na niya yung role niya on the defensive end at saka offensive end. So medyo nagiging composed na siya.”
And Ricardo knows full well that Santos' continuous rise would be critical for the Knights' campaign moving forward this season.
“For the upcoming games, I’m looking forward na gaganda pa ang attitude niya, body language niya going into those games,” he said, with Santos now finally finding his rhythm alongside the just-returned Pao Javillonar to give Letran a pair of skilled, lengthy, and defensive-minded bigs.
“Alam ko, magkakaroon siya ng malaking impact sa [success ng] team."
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