PLAYING significant minutes to compensate for the absence of an injured JD Cagulangan, Terrence Fortea put up a noble effort to tow the UP Fighting Maroons en route to their first win of UAAP Season 85.
The combo guard played 27 minutes, scoring 15 points, and dished out nine assists in UP's comeback 72-69 win over the DLSU Green Archers on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Terrence Fortea on stepping up
"First game pa lang namin, alam namin tong game na 'to marami kaming natutunan para sa mga upcoming games namin," Fortea said in the post-game presser.
"Siguro masaya lang ako kasi kahit anong mangyari kanina sa game, kahit nalamangan kami, yung pride namin as a team, pinakita pa rin namin na gusto naming manalo," he added.
The defending champions trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half, and slowly inched back to the contest.
Known as a scorer during his high school days with the NU Bullpups, Fortea drew a challenge from head coach Goldwin Monteverde to add a wrinkle to his game.
As Monteverde noted, Fortea had improved in terms of playmaking over the past few months, a big development for the title-repeat seekers.
"Ito sa position kasi, sa NU kasi, he’s more a 2, siya yung scorer. Ito yung malaking challenge being a point guard. Ikaw yung magfa-facilitate ng opensa rather than focusing on scoring," explained Monteverde.
"I think from last season compared sa ngayon, malaki na rin yung inimprove niya sa position na yun. Maganda lang kasi, in-embrace na rin niya yung pagiging point guard. I’m sure he’s going to improve more sa position niya," he continued.
For Fortea, the performance was just all in a day's work in doing what's best for the team.
"In-accept ko lang yung challenge na wala si JD. In-accept ko lang nang mas maayos para matulungan ko yung team," said Fortea.
"Alam ko naman na backup lang ako ni JD, pero di naman yun rason. Kung wala yung kapatid namin, kami yung magse-step up na."
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