No heartbreaker needed: Manganti wants to crush U.P. early

MANILA, Philippines – In a stroke of fate, the twice-to-beat Adamson Soaring Falcons have been paired up with the UP Fighting Maroons in the UAAP Season 81 Final Four.

Yes, it’s the same Adamson squad that swept UP off back-to-back heartbreaking daggers by team captain Sean Manganti.

Now that they are once again slated to clash in a higher-stakes war, UP’s most wanted enemy has decided he’s had enough of playing the Maroons down to the wire.

“I honestly wanna end the game early,” he said. “We wanna come out strong, establish ourselves so there’s no need for any of that stuff. We wanna have a solid team game from everybody.”

The lanky Fil-Am remains ever deadly and streaky on the court no matter the opponent, but he’s distancing himself from that “heartbreaker” tag if he had his way.

Manganti first had a game-winner against UP in the first round of Season 80, where he tipped in a missed shot from center Papi Sarr to steal a 73-71 victory. He then followed up with two more in Season 81.

“I wouldn’t say that [my best moments came against UP]. They just happen to be game-winners,” he said. “They’re obviously blowing it out of proportion but people are gonna talk. You can’t control what people say.”

And indeed, after his Twitter DMs have blown up with apparent hate messages, Manganti said that the noise has since subsided a bit.

“You know there’s still gonna be a little bit [of hate], but I got a lot more ‘don’t worry about it.’ It’s just respect,” he said. “But you know, none of that gets to me. It’s okay. Keep it coming.”

But right now, Adamson’s second-leading scorer behind Jerrick Ahanmisi is just excited for what is touted to be an explosive series from two hot teams.

The Falcons, who own a twice-to-beat advantage as the No. 2 seed, will shoot for their first title berth in 26 years against the Maroons at 3:30 pm on Saturday, November 24 at the Mall of Asia Arena.

“It’s exciting man. I love playing against them. They got one of the best crowds,” said Manganti. “Every time we play them, it’s like a Finals game. Every time we play them, it’s so intense. I love playing against them. Everybody on the team just wants to play hard. I respect that.” – Rappler.com