WHAT began as a bad night for Jacob Cortez slowly turned into a test of faith and fate.
Early on, nothing seemed to fall his way. His touch felt off, his confidence wavered, and their back-to-back losses still lingered in the back of his mind.
But as the game stretched on, the 23-year-old guard found himself drawn into a moment where belief and resolve had to meet.
Only when the final buzzer sounded did it sink in - and Cortez, having hit his last two after missing all but one of his 11 shots, knew he'd done it.
The hours of work, the frustration, the pressure he had quietly carried, all of it finally released. And that was when the tears came.
READ: La Salle shows guts in shutdown of playoff-bound UP
“Reason why I cried earlier is because I really prayed to God before this game, and it was the most I prayed in a while. Those last shots, I think God gave me those, and we ended up winning the game that we really needed. That was gratitude,” he told SPIN.ph after helping La Salle take an 87-82 win over UP, allowing the Green Archers to get an inside track of one of the two remaining Final Four slots in the UAAP Season 88.
Cortez admitted how difficult their recent slide had been on him.
“These past games, I mentioned this to my dad, I was questioning my confidence and I had to find that back,” he said.
“During the stretch of this game, I just remembered all my extra work, workouts, sacrifices, and wanting to be there for my teammates and coaches. Credit to them for sticking together.”
With Kean Baclaan unavailable, Cortez knew the responsibility was his.
His 14 points and four rebounds told only part of the story on Saturday's rival match; the real fight was internal.
“To me, if I play good, we win. If I play bad, we lose. It’s me versus me, really. From the last two games, us losing by one, sometimes it feels like I’ve let La Salle down.”
So he gathered himself.
Tentatively at first, just enough to make them nervous, but still in time to change the course of the night.
Then it felt like a return to something deeper.
Long before he wore the Green Archers jersey, he was raised in a world where La Salle was already part of him, thanks to his father, Mike, a legend of the program.
“It’s a matter of giving back to that community. They can say whatever they want about me, bad or good, but for me, I just want to win it for them,” he said.
And on this night, as faith and fate aligned — he did just that.
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