Ateneo de Manila University star rookie Kieffer Alas against against National University in UAAP Season 89 men’s basketball. UAAP Media.MANILA — It was the Kieffer Alas show down the stretch as the Ateneo de Manila University ace showed ice in his veins when his team needed him most.
The Blue Eagles’ prized rookie fired 10 of his 18 points in the final three minutes as Ateneo erased a 17-point deficit to outlast National University, 87-76.
For Alas, it was simply a matter of living up to his billing.
“It’s not really in my head,” said Alas, who also had five rebounds, four assists, and three steals. “Like what my dad-slash-coach said, there are so many good players in this world, but you can see who’s set above the rest.
"No matter how bad the first to the third quarter, as long as you just keep on going, and I guess, the results showed in the fourth quarter."
With NU threatening in crunch time, Alas hit the go-ahead basket before draining a pair of three-point daggers to lift Ateneo to its third win in four games and move the Blue Eagles to solo first in the standings.
And while the 19-year-old shot just 7-of-20 from the field and 4-of-13 from long range, his father and Ateneo head coach Louie Alas said those numbers become secondary when his son delivers in the moments that matter.
“Talaga lang makapal ang mukha,” quipped the elder Alas. “As long as it’s not a bad shot, as long as you’re free, go. Because that’s your role, to score.”
Beyond his son’s shot-making, however, what stood out to the elder Alas was how the Blue Eagles remained composed after NU surged to a 36-19 lead early in the game.
“We just refused to trail by double digits. For me, that’s resilience,” said Alas. “Yung pregame namin, whatever the score is, we will not stop until the end.”
For Kieffer, his clutch performance was only part of what Ateneo accomplished, with the bigger takeaway being how the Blue Eagles responded when the game turned against them.
“I can say that there’s pressure in the last minutes, but I feel like what we’ve been through helped in how we handle pressure,” he said. “When everyone is looking down on us, we just realized that we don’t care what the outside noise has to say. Yung basketball court, 94 feet lang, so that’s just what we locked in on.”
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