In what could be his last San Beda-Letran rivalry game, Donald Tankoua made sure that he and the Red Lions would come out on top.
Last Tuesday, San Beda held an imposing 22-point lead, 67-45, on archrival Letran with 6:19 left in the game.
The Red Lions forgot one thing, however, and let their guards down and saw the Knights storm back with a 19-0 blast.
“If we lost this game, I should probably blame myself for that because I gave everybody a chance to play and the other guys who came in just simply didn’t want to really step up,” said head coach Boyet Fernandez. “They thought it was already a won game for us.”
With Robert Bolick fouling out with less than a minute left, San Beda needed someone it could lean on to stop the bleeding.
It was Tankoua who heeded the call, knocking down a clutch basket that eventually gave the Red Lions a 74-68 win.
Because of his herculean effort that saw him finish with 19 points and nine rebounds, the 6-foot-6 Cameroonian was hailed as the Chooks-to-Go/NCAA Press Corps Player of the Week.
Though getting the victory, last season’s Finals MVP hopes that this serves as a wake up call for his teammates that they could never sleep on anyone the rest of the way.
“What happened, happened and I think that we should realize that we really have to work hard in every game,” the 23-year-old big man said.
Tankoua bested Lyceum’s Jaycee Marcelino, Mapua’s Laurenz Victoria, and San Sebastian’s Michael Calisaan for the weekly citation handed out by print and online sportswriters covering the beat.