By Soleina Vasquez

The Ateneo Girls’ Basketball Team pulled off a gritty 49-20 win in their first game against St. Bridget School (SBS), and a 55-49 victory over St. Patrick School a week later, before University of Santo Tomas (UST) Angelicum broke the team’s winning streak through a 75-39 takeover in the Athletic and Sports Association of Private Schools-Quezon City (ASAPS-QC) at Claret School of Quezon City and UST Angelicum College Courts on September 11, 18, and 20, respectively.

“The ASAPS [tournaments] happen annually, creating a lot of excitement and competitiveness [as you face] teams you’ve already played against the year before,” team captain Matia Molina expressed.

“It’s interesting to see how much [the] teams have changed in a year, and it gives us motivation to defend our win or get back at teams we lost to,” she added.

This year, Ateneo entered the match with little preparation after finding out about the first game against SBS only days before, which led to a shaky start on the court.

“This problem reflected during the first few minutes as our team had a slow start, however, we were able to overcome this and get the win in the end,” she shared.

According to Molina, Head Coach PJ Navarro gave the team a reminder that became their turning point — they had to win or else they would not move up to the next level, which pushed them to give everything they had, even while tired.

The squad rode on the momentum from their match against SBS, simply too much for St. Patrick to overcome.

However, the Junior Lady Eagles soon clung to life as they faced the Thomasians who destroyed their pace to steal the show as they stretched the gap to almost half of their winning score, 75-39.