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| Cholo Villanueva huddles up his UAAP team right after watching his MPBL team in action. Ivan Saldajeno |
BATANGAS CITY—Famously known for ending National University's historic winning streak in the UAAP women's basketball tournament in 2022, La Salle has long been in conversations as to who can stop the Lady Bulldogs' longtime domination even before the University of Santo Tomas eventually dethroned them as champions last season.
However, this season is a different story for the Lady Archers.
In an unfamiliar territory, La Salle is in a three-way tie at the bottom of the standings at the end of the first round, only winning one game out of seven, a victory against Far Eastern University where Luisa San Juan exploded for an all-time women's basketball record 10 threes that also matched the UAAP record in the men's division.
With the league taking a week off from action, coach Cholo Villanueva made the most out of the break by bringing his Lady Archers to this city to watch his other team, the Batangas City Rum Masters, in action.
Batangas City opened its MPBL Playoffs campaign on Thursday night against Davao Occidental with the former enjoying a homecourt edge at the Batangas City Sports Coliseum.
For Villanueva, having the girls watch his other team playing is not just some treat for their valiant effort despite the UAAP struggles.
For one, bringing his collegiate team here affirms that they are part of a bigger family with Villanueva as the de facto patriarch.
"We're a big family. All my teams know each other," Villanueva said after the Rum Masters' game against the Tigers.
However, the major purpose of the trip down south is for the Lady Archers to analyze further how Villanueva's system runs.
"We're running the same system, so parang it's an educational trip for them to see how we run things dito sa Batangas and apply it to our team in the UAAP," Villanueva further said.
Although Davao Occidental went on a late run to make things interesting, Batangas City still emerged victorious, so La Salle went back to Manila with many positives acquired.
With that said, Villanueva is optimistic that the "field trip" would spark the Lady Archers' late dash to the Final Four.
"We're gonna be bouncing back in the second round," Villanueva said.
"[I am] hoping that we're gonna be bringing the momentum of this game there too."
La Salle resumes its UAAP women's basketball campaign on Saturday against University of the East, another team at 1-6, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
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