MANILA -- Simon Atkins, the 21-year-old cage heartthrob from De La Salle University (DLSU), knows very well how to carry his team to victory against highly-favored and first round tormentor Far Eastern University (FEU) last Saturday.
In what was expected to be a slow, bumpy ride to a triumphant finish, La Salle blasted FEU, 26 to nine in the payoff period while stopping FEU star Ryan Roose Garcia en route to the school’s seventh win in eleven outings.
And thanks to Atkins, La Salle is now on track to regain the Final Four spot they lost for the first time last year.
The former La Salle Zobel standout buried 10 of his 19 points in the final period to let his team emerge from an eight-point deficit and pulled off an 80-66 major upset over FEU, which dropped to 9-2.
"I didn’t want to let the team down," said Atkins, named as the Accel-Filoil UAAP Press Corps Player of the Week.
He is the second La Salle player to receive the award after Samuel Joseph Marata's late-game heroics against Ateneo last July 24 earned raves from the press.
Ateneo's Ryan Buenafe, who registered a double-double to lead the Blue Eagles to their 12th straight Final Four appearance last Sunday, also earned a citation from the weekly honor backed by Gatorade and Terrilicious.
The former San Sebastian Staglet posted 14 points, 12 rebounds while batchmate Nico Salva chipped in 13 points. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)