Thanks in part to Robi Nayve, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde notched its second win in NCAA Season 97 after the Blazers escaped Arellano University with a 76-71 victory on Saturday.
Nayve, a 5-foot-10 shooting guard, finished with a game-high 19 points, highlighted by a crucial triple that gave a 73-70 lead with 55 seconds left to play, to go along with three rebounds in almost 30 minutes of action.
Prior to that, Nayve also drilled 17 points in their 79-68 win over Lyceum while he grabbed seven in the 67-63 loss to Letran last Saturday.
These impressive performances so far, according to Nayve, were a product of the trust he put in the system headed by coach Charles Tiu.
"I can't really express how happy I am. Inaantay ko na 'tong moment na 'to, coming in this season we lost our great scorers like Justin Gutang and Jimboy Pasturan so Coach Charles was looking for a guy who is willing to contribute to the scoring," Nayve shared in the post-game interview.
"I stick to my mindset lang na kaya ko 'yung role na 'yon and na-embrace ko naman."
Nayve also stressed that coming into the season, they didn't exactly know how they would fare as their off-season tune-up games were not great.
"So far, I'm super happy with the team's progress. Coming into this season, during our training camp last February, medyo masama 'yung napapakita namin sa mga tune-up games but I just trusted our coaches' system," Nayve added.
"We really trust coach Charles' system na dinala niya. We just stick to it and ayon, sakto 'yung pag-peak ng togetherness namin sa team."
The CSB Blazers have now improved to 2-1 and will look to grab their third straight win against Emilio Aguinaldo College on Tuesday.
—JMB, GMA News
