Rookies Porter, Bahay embrace pressure with big-boy games for Blue Eagles

MANILA, Philippines —As the saying goes, pressure creates diamonds. 

Ateneo rookies Kristian Porter and Jared Bahay showed that they are capable of being diamonds as they steered the Blue Eagles to their second victory in the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament, nipping the National University Bulldogs, 70-68, last Sunday, October 13.

Porter and Bahay came up big as they led the Blue Eagles in the crucial game to keep their Final Four hopes alive. 

The bruising big man Porter finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks and two steals, while the floor general Bahay had 12 points, six rebounds, five assists and a steal. 

Both just 19 years old, the two made huge plays down the stretch to help keep the gutsy Bulldogs at bay. 

With the game going down the wire, timely shots by Porter kept Ateneo ahead. 

While Bahay missed crucial free throws and jumpers down the stretch, and with the Blue Eagles clinging to a one-point lead, 66-65, with less than 30 seconds to go, he found Porter on the roll. The latter then sank a lead-extending bank shot. 

Porter, after the game, said that he embraced the pressure. 

“Pressure is never gonna go away, especially being a rookie, playing heavy minutes but I don't really let it get to my head. Especially coach Tab, all the coaches, and teammates, they put their trust in me,” he told reporters. 

“So, I don't really feel the pressure because I know they're behind me they got my back every game, the Ateneo community so how I handled that pressure was I looked at it to push me beyond my limits,” he added. 

This was echoed by Bahay, who bared that he saw a post on social media that “pressure is a privilege”. 

“Accept ko lang yun na kahit rookies kami, may duties kami sa team. And we're gonna bring this forward to our coming games and we're gonna play it game by game. Well, I'm really thankful to be put in this position,” the guard said. 

The win put the Blue Eagles at 2-6 in the season, just two wins away from the fourth spot occupied by the 4-4 University of Santo Tomas. 

Ateneo earlier finished the first round of competition with a 1-6 record, the worst start of the Tab Baldwin era.

For Porter, the mistakes of the past is an opportunity to learn and make a run for the semifinals. 

“Siguro we learned from our mistakes in the past. And as I said in my interview back in round one. We're going to learn from the mistakes, the pressure, and we're going to be an entirely different team,” he said. 

“And that entirely different team is the team we are now, but we're not stopping where we are. We're going to keep improving every day in practice, on and off the court, and keep winning every day.” 

Bahay added that the team is now 100% hungry as they continue on with the rest of the second round. 

Ateneo head coach Tab Baldwin, for his part, stressed that the Porter and Bahay are “both good players, but there's still a lot more promise than there is production.” 

“They're walking that fine line between pressing hard to be productive and making intelligent plays because both of them, they showed signs of pressure tonight. The shooting percentages weren't great. Kristian missed some shots around the basket he's gotta make. Jared took some bad shots trying to carry the team forward, so they've got to learn not to do that,” he said. 

“They've got to learn to trust their teammates more, but they have to also be, and this is what they want to be, they have to be the guys that can answer the call when the call is made, but they have to understand when that is,” he added. 

“Tonight they forced it a few times. And, you know, those were bad decisions that put us in maybe a perilous position we didn't need to be in. But they also made plays. That's what you get with young players.” 

Ateneo will be taking on the Growling Tigers next at 12 p.m. Saturday at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion in Manila.