IMPRESSIVE is an understatement when describing University of Santo Tomas’ streak-busting performance on Saturday against La Salle.
The Growling Tigers not only took down the preseason favorites after their 93-84 win, they also ended a ten-year dry spell against the green-and-white.
And on the forefront of ending their decade-long futility against the Green Archers was the hulking rookie in Collins Akowe who delivered another dominant performance with 20 points and 19 rebounds against the deep La Salle front court featuring the likes of Mike Phillips, Mason Amos, Luis Pablo, Bright Nwanko, and Lebron Jhames Daep.
READ: UST keeps living up to the hype after takedown of La Salle
Making that even more impressive was that he was battling a flu in this game.
After the game, Akowe shared that a friend of his hyped him up which led to a big performance in the second half where he had 12 points and 13 rebounds in the final two quarters.
“Diego [my friend] said, even MJ had a flu game, so no excuses.”
“I was like, ‘okay, no problem, man.’ I'm just gonna do what I need to do. And basically, I need to turn up in the second half, which I did,” he added.
Akowe explained that he also had to read how the Green Archers were defending him in the first half and thankfully he was able to adjust.
“It was kind of a slow start for me,” Akowe explained. “That was what I was getting about most times in the first half, to see the kind of defense they were giving me, and I just had to adjust coming into the second half.”
In contrast, Phillips and Amos couldn’t match Akowe’s output, only combining for 17 points with Phillips racking up 15 boards.
When asked if 20-point, 20-rebound games are always his objective, Akowe shrugged it off:
“I would say, if it comes, it comes, man. It's not a goal, it's not something I will get something out of if I achieve,” he said as he also missed out on a 20-20 in his first game, finishing with 29 points and 17 rebounds.
“But coming into the game, it was so sad I couldn't get one rebound, because Forthsky said I should give him 20 and 20 coming into the game,” Akowe joked.
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