Entering the chilly SM Mall of Asia Arena for the UP Fighting Maroons’ win-or-go-home Final Four tilt against the Adamson Soaring Falcons, Bright Akhuetie was as bubbly as usual. However, he also wore layers upon layers of clothing.
The 22-year-old had been suffering from a case of the flu days prior to the game.
But the transferee from Perpetual Help did not want to tell anyone that he was sick, as it would dampen the spirits of his teammates.
“I didn’t want to tell them that will bring their spirits down.”
The game itself showed that the 6-foot-8 big man was far from his usual self. Akhuetie could not even get his shots up while Papi Sarr was overpowering him on the other end.
“They were asking me, are you okay? I said yeah, I’ll keep going.”
The two teams have pushed each other to the limit all season, and this match also went into the deep waters. The game was tied at 71-all with 3.7 seconds left.
“I don’t want to be in the situation where I tell them that I can’t do it and their spirits will go down and I won’t be able to play. So I was just there, doing my job on the rebounding, not forcing anything, not trying to score offensively, because it was really hard for me,” shared Akhuetie, who was just 1-of-4 from the field during that time but had 14 rebounds to boot.
“I was trying to catch my breath, dealing with the cold and it was just too much.”
But Akhuetie needed to dig deep and not let his teammates down, as the Fighting Maroons have worked so hard to get to this point.
Off a timeout, Juan Gomez de Liano threw a lob to Akhuetie, who was in the paint. Akhuetie then mustered all his might to throw up the bucket. Game-winner.
“I can’t tell them that I won’t be able to play. It’s gonna be bad. I just psyched myself [up] – whatever it is, stay there and lead these guys.“
And with Akhuetie back at full strength on Wednesday, he plans on delivering his MVP-numbers once again.
