John Barba notched his NCAA career-high at the best moment possible for Lyceum of the Philippines University.
Barba tied his career-best with 20 points, together with six rebounds, three assists, and two steals to get the 86-62 victory against a gusty University of Perpetual Help DALTA team on Saturday.
Despite having the best scoring performance of his college basketball career, head coach Gilbert Malabanan noticed a different aspect in Barba’s game — his defense.
“Barba can score a lot of points no pero di tayo don natatapos. Just like I’ve said to him hindi pwede tayong magii-score, we need to work on your defense and he knows it already,” said the second-year head coach.
“Ayun nga, kapag di naman nakakadepensa yan, babawi sa iscore yan.”
The 6-foot-2 forward scored 18 markers in the first half, then suddenly turned into a lockdown defender, getting all of his two pickpockets in the second half.
For the former NCAA Juniors MVP, he is just doing what Lyceum was best known for — and that is their defensive excellency.
“Kasi kilala naman yung Lyceum talaga sa depensa e. Sinasabi ni coach sa amin na wala namang malas sa defense basta agresibo ka e dahil yung opensa naman to follow na yun,” said the Lyceum lifer.
To top all of that, Barba shot the lights out from beyond the arc hitting four triples on 57-percent shooting.
Nonetheless, he was just happy that his shots were falling, especially his long balls.
“Ayun nga ginawa ko lang din yung part ko para makatulong ako sa team kasi every game talagang nagpplay as a team so bonus na lang talaga sakin yung umiiscore ako. Talagang shumushoot yung labas e.”
