Birthday celebrant Favour Onoh completely earned her teammates’ trust following her league-record 30-rebound performance in University of the Philippines’ 88-80 overtime escape against University of Santo Tomas in the Final Four of the UAAP Season 86 women’s basketball tournament on Wednesday, Nov. 22.

The Fighting Maroons kept their final hopes pretty much on track after disarming the Growling Tigresses of their twice-to-beat advantage behind Onoh’s explosive defensive stats, finishing with a historic 30 rebounds to go with 14 points. 

Onoh, who celebrated her 18th birthday in the crucial win, only had one thing in mind which was for her teammates to keep trusting in her. 

“It’s one of the things that I need to do to help my team. If I’m not able to get those rebounds and play defense, I don’t think that my teammates will have that trust in me. I have this mindset that I must get that ball, I have to (find timing) so I can get those rebounds,” Onoh said. 

“I’m very much excited that we won this game and it also gave us the momentum for our next one,” she added. 

UP is looking to end its 15-year championship drought and will lean on Onoh’s timely defensive growth as it faces UST in their do-or-die match on Saturday, Nov. 25. 

The winner is set to face eight-peat-seeking and top-seeded National University Lady Bulldogs in the championship. 

“I hope that on Saturday, now that she’s a fully grown woman, the experience and maturity will be showcased more,” said UP head coach Paul Ramos. 

“It’s gonna be a daunting task, but it’s very much possible. We know UP as a community, we’ve been in this kind of situation before. So we’re just trying to emulate those things, facets of our game. So we can put ourselves again in a better position to win that ballgame,” he concluded.