Monday, October 22, 2018

Nabalan, Kouame share Player of the Week nod

In a first for the Collegiate Press Corps, the print and online media selected a couple of players to share the latest Player of the Week nod for the UAAP.

Presented by Chooks-to-Go, the scribes bestown such honor to Ria Nabalan of National University and Angelo Kouame of Ateneo de Manila University, beating out Juan Gomez de Liano of the University of the Philippines who became the first man to produce a triple-double in the UAAP in twelve years.

Nabalan made history as the first female student-athlete to be named as a Player of the Week, becoming the third female in league history to score at least forty points in a game. She joins Raiza Palmera and Allana Lim as the only players to achieve that milestone, the former netting 44 for Far Eastern University in an 85-80 win over the University of the East back in 2011, with the latter dropping 45 on the same Lady Warriors in an 85-43 blowout one year later.

The national team standout scored 40 points on 14/23 shooting in the Lady Bulldogs' 111-64 win over La Salle this past Saturday, extending their long winning streak to 72 games, which is one short of the record for all sports, currently held by Adamson's softball team.

Even her head coach Patrick Aquino was delighted to be a witness to this moment. He shares, "Sobrang happy that everything was falling for (Nabalan). It’s only a once-in-a-lifetime na makakuha siya ng forty points. Sobrang saya."

Later that afternoon, it was Angelo Kouame's turn to take the stage.

With Ateneo slightly undermanned due to the absence of Thirdy Ravena due to suspension and the Nieto twins due to illness, the Ivorian center took over against Far Eastern University.

Kouame finished with 33 points and 27 rebounds to tow the Blue Eagles to an 82-62 demolition of the Tamaraws, becoming the first male student-athlete since Rabeh Al-Hussaini to produce a 30-20 in a UAAP game. The total rebounds is a single-game record since computerized stats were integrated into the league back in 2003.

Al-Hussaini pulled off that feat back in 2008 also against FEU, although the Tamaraws won that one, 72-66.

Even with that performance, the Ateneo coaching staff believes that Angelo is merely scratching the surface of his potential.

Ateneo lead assistant Sandy Arespacochaga shared to media after the game, "We’re very happy with his development and we’d like to think of it that he’ll still continue to improve. That’s the mentality of coach Tab [Baldwin] - kung anong talents niya, he will continue to improve it and he will continue teaching."

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