Without a doubt, one of the bright lights of De La Salle University in its UAAP Season 84 Men’s Basketball Tournament run was the growth of its new court general Evan Nelle.
After a stellar 26-point performance against University of the Philippines in round one of the Final Four, the 5-foot-10 point guard failed to replicate the magic and suffered a painful miss in the endgame when he saw his floater roll out of the hoop as the Fighting Maroons eventually prevailed 78-74 to book a finals ticket against Ateneo de Manila University.
Nelle, who is never afraid to speak his mind, was candid after the game. Clearly, the loss stung as the Green Archers were so close to returning to the big dance for the first time since Season 80.
“We fell short. We didn’t convert. We couldn’t get stops and I f—-ed up,” lamented the former San Beda University standout who had six points, four steals, four rebounds, and three assists in 25:42 minutes of action.
“Not enough. The season was rocky. We were really good on defense but our offense was never consistent. That’s why we had a lot of close games,” the NCAA Season 95 Mythical Team member continued.
“We know we had them. We should have won this game. We really should have won this game. So much to learn talaga. F—k.”
From such a promising position, the Green Archers led as much as 14 points, to squander it in that way was such a painful way to lose especially since the Fighting Maroons only led for just 31 seconds in both matches.
For now, there are only regrets. La Salle will learn from this amidst its rebuilding phase under coach Derrick Pumaren but the question of ‘what if’ will linger much longer.
“Thank you guys for being there for us. It was a rocky season. We should have won so many more games. We’re so sorry that we fell short,” said Nelle to the Lasallian community.
“We’ll take all our learnings and we’ll bounce back better. Thank you sa lahat ng mga sumuporta sa amin. Sorry na we fell short. Kayang-kaya pero wala. Kinapos.”
It will take time before Nelle and the rest of the Green Archers can redeem themselves. But as the saying goes – it’s either one loses or learns and La Salle will have to regroup from a campaign that ended in success but had the potential to culminate in glory.
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