It has been a roller-coaster season for third-year Adamson University Soaring Falcon Sean Manganti so far.
After scoring just four points against the Ateneo Blue Eagles on opening day, the 6-foot-5 forward tallied a career-best 27 points against the UE Red Warriors 10 days later.
When everyone expected Manganti to follow it up with another hot performance, he ended up going scoreless during Adamson’s win over the UST Growling Tigers last Saturday.
And it seemed destined to happen again on Wednesday afternoon, as Manganti was once again plagued by foul-trouble.
“The first half I was in foul trouble again, [so I had to] try to gain my momentum and rhythm in the second half,” Manganti recalled.
Though Manganti was able to get his numbers, scoring 10 points in the third canto, UP built a 12-point lead late in the frame.
But the agile forward did not want to let their 3-0 run go to waste.
Adamson were able to gain a 67-66 lead after a 10-1 with 1:39 left. However, Bright Akhuetie was able to get the lead back for UP after a putback off of Paul Desiderio’s airball with 5.7 seconds to spare.
Fortunately for Adamson, Manganti was able to make the most out of it, knocking down a one-hander to give Adamson the lead at the death.
“Well, everybody can say it was just a lucky win for us you know, good shot by Sean,” shared third-year Adamson head coach Franz Pumaren.
“I’m happy I made the shot, I was struggling on defense a little bit, I’m not one-hundred percent right now,” added Manganti.
“We’re lucky we were able to close it out.”
Manganti ended with 18 points. With this, he is hoping that he can be more consistent.
“Just trying to be more consistent. That’s it.”
