By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Former Hua Siong College of Iloilo main man Mark Nonoy played his heart out to help the De La Salle University (DLSU) Green Archers return to the UAAP men’s basketball grand finals stage last November 25, 2023.
The daredevil guard earned another Best Player of the Game award after putting up efficient numbers to lift the Green Archers over the National University (NU) Bulldogs, 97-73, during the highly-anticipated Final Four clash.
Nonoy hosted another scoring avalanche for the Green Archers and ended the Final Four outing with 20 big points built from four drained three-pointers.
The lightning-quick floor general recently picked up his shooting efficiency at the most perfect time when the Green Archers were about to end the second round of preliminaries.
When the Green Archers needed him to shine on the big stage, Nonoy once again delivered.
With La Salle only clinging to a six-point lead when the second quarter started, Nonoy became the spark plug for the green nation after he exploded for 13 points in just eight minutes of action.
Nonoy kicked off his offensive showcase with a quick drive to the hoop after negating the pick-and-roll action with their foreign student-athlete Bright Nwankwo.
In the next scoring action, Nonoy began to pile up the points as he hit trey after trey while also finishing a huge drive in the fast break.
Nonoy’s scoring eruption became one of the factors why the Green Archers were able to open up a commanding double-digit lead and didn’t look back the whole second half.
With the victory, the Green Archers ended a six-year UAAP men’s basketball grand final appearance drought and just set up an action-packed championship series with the UP Fighting Maroons for all the marbles.
The Fighting Maroons banked on a second-half flurry to deny the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) Blue Eagles of a title defense, 57-46, during the first scheduled Final Four match.
