Ever since entering the UAAP back in 2016, Ben Mbala has been on a tear, grabbing double-doubles with ease, with norms of 20.6 points and 16.0 rebounds in his first-year.
And to start off his second year, the 22-year-old upped the ante, breaking his UAAP-high in scoring twice while continuing to dominate the boards.
Entering Saturday afternoon, Mbala had posted double-doubles for 19 straight games. But as they say, streaks are meant to be broken, as the 6-foot-7 Cameroonian student-athlete finished with 29 points and nine rebounds, both his season-lows, during La Salle’s 115-86 win over the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers.
More mature now after his Afrobasket experience, Mbala downplayed it, saying that he would take the wins over personal feats any day.
“I’m not here to look for double-doubles, I’m just here to help my team win. It’s not about my stats, it’s all about winning,” said the SMART Sports Player of the Game.
“I’ll give that away, I don’t mind. It’s not about myself, it’s about our team.”
Mbala, who sat in for head coach Aldin Ayo during the post-game press conference, as the tactician was scouting the Ateneo-NU game, beamed over the way the Green Archers had been able to pick themselves up after suffering their first loss of the season last Saturday.
“I feel like we played better defense. We were able to execute our Mayhem defense, we were able to force them into turnovers that led to easy fastbreak baskets,” shared the reigning MVP, who is averaging 31.67 points and 10.33 rebounds this season. “We were also able to pass the ball better, we had 26 assists compared to the last game.
“We just played better.”
Still, the second-year Green Archer still sees a lot of flaws in their game that they need to fix as early as now.
“It’s still the first round and we are still making adjustments. I feel like we are going to get better, sooner or later,” Mbala expressed.
“There’s always room for improvement and we got to keep on working.”
