For Ange Kouame, going after personal records isn’t part of his priorities when he joined the Cignal-Ateneo Blue Eagles in the PBA D-League.
That’s what the Ivorian center made clear of when he fell just one rebound short of tying the PBA D-League’s rebounding record of 30 in his Cignal-Ateneo’s 88-66 win over St. Clare College-Virtual Reality, Tuesday.
“No, I don’t look at the records,” said the 6-foot-11 Kouame, who finished with 29 rebounds — 15 coming from the offensive end — on top of 24 points, five blocks, and three assists in the 29 minutes and 14 seconds he played.
“I just play the game. Players like LeBron James, they don’t look at the numbers until they get the results. So me, I just focus on the game.”
Though he was a rebound shy of the total rebounding record, the 21-year-old shattered the offensive rebounding milestone of the league as he tallied four more rebounds than JR Taganas’ previous record set back in March 19, 2015.
The game had truly been the concern of not just Kouame but of the entire Blue Eagles as well, as the played far from their usual form in the first half and even went down by as much as 18, 46-28, early in the third quarter.
But fortunately for Cignal-Ateneo, they managed to wake up and started to play their way in the third, which led to them exploding for 37 points in the period alone to take a 66-55 lead to turn the match into a one-sided show.
“It’s still the same mindset [for us], just recognize what’s the key to the game, what’s wrong and find the solution and improve on yourself. We talked about that at the end of the first half and when we look at ourselves, that’s not Ateneo,” said the incoming sophomore.
“We had to bounce back and we made it in the second half.”
