UAAP: Mike Phillips’ one last ride with La Salle ends in UAAP glory

'Motor Mike' took De La Salle University on a ride one more time, and it ended on championship road.

In his last ever game donning the Green and White, Mike Phillips put up a season-high 25 points to go along with a monstrous 18 rebounds.

Due to his efforts throughout the finals series, the now two-time UAAP champion was vested with Most Valuable Player honors, averaging 13.3 points, 13.7 rebounds, and one assist.

However, in classic Mike Phillips fashion, the six-foot-eight cager reverted all his praises to God, crediting his faith for his final performance for DLSU. 

“It’s just been an amazing five years. All glory goes to Jesus Christ. I don’t want my name to be remembered at all. I just want to say I’m just a vessel. Jesus used us, Jesus used me to bring more people to His name,” the graduating player acclaimed.

Knocking off University of the Philippines and helping La Salle bring two championships back to Taft during his tenure, Phillips will be remembered as a hard-nosed player with a relentless drive to never give up.

Throughout his UAAP career, he was able to enter the tournament’s Mythical Five team thrice.

Aside from this, Phillips was able to represent the country, winning gold with the men's basketball team in the 2023 Southeast Asian Games.

Seemingly on ‘beast mode’ when on the hardwood, the Lasallian big man confessed that he gets all his energy and will to improve every year from the community that supported him ever since he first featured for the university..

“Earl told me when we were in [the] game, ‘Christ mode is better than beast mode.’”

“When you’re playing for your faith, when you’re playing for others, ‘di ka mapapagod because you’re not playing for yourself. Kumbaga, naglalaro ka para sa isang malaking bagay, and people who come to the games, people writing us letters before the games,” Phillips said.

Now departing Taft with nothing else to prove, Phillips hopes that everything that he did for the Green and White will inspire future dream chasers like him.

“We just wanted to give all glory back to Him. Hopefully, you know, we were able to inspire people with the story Jesus wrote for us this year.”

—JKC, GMA Integrated News