Seventeen student-athletes from the Ateneo Blue Eagles’ pool were sent to the 2018 William Jones Cup.
Even if they played eight games in eight days, they never showed signs of fatigue — always playing on and dealing with the cards dealt to them.
Besides playing for flag and country, the Blue Eagles had one of their fallen brothers in mind.
With eight minutes still remaining in the third quarter of that game, SJ Belangel went for a drive on a fastbreak attempt. But just as he was about to pass the ball to Angelo Kouame, he was met by Papi Sarr mid-air, inadvertently kneeing the right side of the rookie’s face.
The 19-year-old suffered a fractured OCM (orbital-zygomatic-maxillary) and had to be placed under surgery to replace it with a titanium plate.
Matt Nieto and the Blue Eagles though know that Belangel was watching them duke it out in Taiwan from his hospital bed.
“Alam namin na gusto inya sumama rito, kaso kailangan siyang i-surgery,” the Gilas Cadet said. “Pero okay na po yung surgery, okay na po siya ngayon.
“So naglaro kami para sa kanya kasi alam namin na part ng family si SJ and of course, ilalaro namin para sa kanya talaga.”
