Favour Onoh celebrated her 18th birthday by producing a monster performance for University of the Philippines.
Onoh, who comes from Nigeria, contributed 14 points and an incredulous 30 rebounds as UP prevailed 88-80 in overtime against University of Santo Tomas to force a rubber match in the Final Four of the UAAP Season 86 Women’s Basketball Tournament.
The previous record was shared by Justine Baltazar, who hauled down 27 rebounds rebounds during NUNS’s 78-58 win over DLSZ on February 19, 2016, and Angelo Kouame, who grabbed the same number of boards in Ateneo’s 82-62 win over FEU on October 20, 2018,
It was indeed a fine way to celebrate her birthday and the Fighting Maroons are just one win away from reaching the Finals for the first time since Season 71, especially since her rebounding output is now a record in the UAAP across the men’s, women’s and high school boys’ divisions.
However, it was just another day at the office for Onoh.
“Rebounding is one of the things that I need to do to help my team because if I’m not able to get those rebounds and play defense, I don’t think my teammates will have that trust in me. I have this mindset that I must get that ball. I have to time it well. That’s why I can get those rebounds,” she said.
What made UP’s victory more remarkable is that UST led as much as 20 points at one point during the game. The Fighting Maroons dug deep to find a way to win.
The best teams always find ways to win and this was a classic victory for the resurgent UP program.
“It wasn’t easy for us because we had a lot of pressure. We just calmed ourselves down, and talked to ourselves about what we could do. That’s why we overcame that,” said Onoh.
Birthdays like this can rarely get better. However, the Fighting Maroons know they need to defeat the Growling Tigresses one more time to earn the right to face the NU Lady Bulldogs in the finals.
What a birthday celebration week for Onoh, though, if UP pulls off another win over UST.
“I’ll say that today being my birthday, I really dedicated this game to them today because it’s my birthday. It’s a special day for me and also with the team connection, and we playing together as a team and with the love we show each other on the court, we stepped on the gas, and did this thanks to all the support from our coaches,” she said.
“I’m very much excited that we won this game and it also gave us the momentum to face our next game, which is on Saturday.”
