Being the Most Valuable Player (MVP), graduating senior Bryan Bagunas made sure to make his last game worth it by scoring a career-high of 35 points along with 12 digs and nine excellent receptions. Teammate Kim Malabunga added nine points, while Rookie of the Year Nico Almendras and James Natividad worked together for a total of 15 points.
For FEU, it was skipper Richard Solis who chipped the highest with 18 points, while Jude Garcia, JP Bugaoan, Redijohn Paler, and Peter Quiel contributed 11 points each. Unfortunately, setter Owen Suarez suffered through left leg cramps in the third set, (ending for filming) which ailed the Tamaraws during a 19-19 deadlock. However, the team expressed that they were satisfied with their performance, as this was their first finals appearance in the last six years. Besides Solis, Paler played his last game for the team as well.
The championship game equated to a total of 16 straight victories for the Bulldogs, head coach and former ASEAN University Games gold-medalist Dante Alinsunurin sharing in a mix of English and Filipino, “I’m very happy that we’re champions and with our performance. We get better and better here in the finals. I’m just really happy with what we achieved this year.” This is NU’s fourth title in the past seven years.
When talking about his memorable final game for Team FEU, Batangas-native Bagunas also elaborates, “The way we seniors exited [is] history. There were three years where our seniors exited without being champions. We just told ourselves that we don’t want to feel that same type of exit.”