Brigette Santos turns tears into career-best outing for UST

University of Santo Tomas’ Brigette Santos took it hard when head coach Haydee Ong reprimanded her during practice for her lack of focus. Come Game 2, she turned in a career-best performance. 

With their title on the line, the Growling Tigresses rescued themselves from the jaws of series defeat after eking out a 78-68 victory over National University on Wednesday.

The fourth-year UST guard pumped out a career-high 27 points on top of two rebounds, four assists, and two steals to level the championship series with erstwhile unbeaten NU, whose dominant 15-game winning streak came to an end.

With Santos being told she lacked focus in her game by no less than the head coach, the 5-foot-4 sniper knew there was no better time than now to put on display her full potential. 

"Every training naiiyak na ako kasi si Coach Haydee palagi akong pinapagalitan. Sabi ko 'Bakit ba lagi akong pinapagalitan ni coach?' Lagi niya sa akin sinasabi na wala ako sa focus. 'Pag ganun naiiyak na ako kasi naka-focus naman ako," Santos said.

“But si Coach Haydee kasi, parang mother ko na rin talaga 'yan. Sa lahat naman, parang mother talaga namin si coach. So kapag napagalitan kami, nagdadamdam talaga… napagalitan na naman ganyan. Pero hindi namin tine-take ‘yun as personal. 'Pag sa court lang.

"So kinausap niya ako kagabi, chinat niya ako. ‘Mag-focus ka lang, walang makakabantay sa iyo. Kaya mo, maniwala ka lang sa sarili mo. Basta mag-focus ka lang, lumaban ka.'... Na-realize ko na ah, nage-gets ko kung bakit ganito sa akin si coach, bakit ganito ‘yung  teammates ko sa akin na pinupukpok ako. Every mali ko, papagalitan ako. Kasi, I can do more,” she continued.

With three-time Mythical Team member Kent Pastrana being a marked target by NU since the elimination round, Santos is expecting to face the same level of challenge in the title clincher on Sunday.

“Same thing ‘yung mae-expect sa akin in Game 3 pero feeling ko didikitan na ako ng NU eh. Like, alam nila na capable pala ako sa ganun. And kailangan talaga na mag-step up ‘yung mga iba. From sa bench, magtulungan talaga kami,” she said.

In their 72-71 narrow Game 1 defeat that saw Santos score 12 points inside the paint, the Growling Tigresses knew the championship battle is a series of quick turnarounds and recalibration with no time to waste.

“Actually, na-feel talaga namin na amin na ito eh. Siguro, natalo kami ng first game, okay na, move on. Pero hindi kami doon nagmukmok. Kumbaga parang binigay namin 'yung best namin, pero may mga lapses lang na kailangan naming i-work on. So ‘yun, napag-usapan namin na bawasan namin yung mga turnovers namin, dapat sa depensa wala dapat [no mistakes]… communication talaga dapat sa loob,” she said. 

Going up against NU thrice in the last four seasons, UST is gunning to make the glory last in España for as long as possible.

—JKC, GMA Integrated News