Gani Stevens and Rey Remogat couldn’t have exploded at a better time for the University of the Philippines in the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament.
The Fighting Maroons finally got over the hump after a 0-2 start after trouncing University of the East, 92-75, at Araneta Coliseum on Sunday.
Interestingly, Stevens and Remogat throttled to a different gear against their former team.
The two said they didn’t have an ax to grind against UE.
‘He (Remogat) talked to me before the game but nothing like, ‘let’s go out there and show UE what we got.’ It was more of him telling us to play our game and execute. We know about the chemistry we have,’ Stevens told the Inquirer.
‘I have a lot of love for that school and community. They treated me so well in my first season with the UAAP. Moving on, it was a great team win and we knew we had to get a win today.’
Stevens, after struggling in the first two games, gave the defending champions a shot in the arm with a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Remogat also regained his shooting touch, finishing with 21 points on top of seven rebounds and 11 assists after averaging just 2.5 points per game in the team’s first two outings.
Much like Stevens, though, Remogat also downplayed his duel with his former team.
‘There’s no added ‘gigil.’ We came from two straight losses. ‘Gigil,’ can bring good or bad things so I just focused on what I should do as a point guard,’ he said.
‘I didn’t use UE as a basis for me to play well because we believe that, as a champion team, everything starts in practice. We already have all the basis we need in practice.’ he added.