In the Quiet, La Salle’s Leaders Cortez, Pablo Look Inward

The noise of UAAP triumph belonged to FEU. What followed Jacob Cortez, Luis Pablo, and a suddenly struggling La Salle into its locker room was silence.

Imagine this image from outside those solemn locker room walls: the Mall of Asia Arena after the final buzzer, when the cleaning staff comes in. It’s as silent as a church. The basketball is over, but the work remains.

For the defending champions, there’s plenty of it.

A 90–78 defeat to Far Eastern University on Wednesday, September 30, left the Green Archers at 1–2 in UAAP Season 89, still searching for something they could trust from one game to the next. Last season offered proof of what La Salle could overcome, but it can offer no promises of success about this one.

What passed through the each player’s minds in that room remained theirs.

Later, in an exclusive interview, Cortez put one of his responsibilities into words – asked what part of his game needed to improve, he could have started with the shots. He had made two of eight.

“Maybe being a better leader.”

A small sentence with a considerable obligation inside it.

“Being the oldest player on the team, having probably the most experience, I guess it’s my role on the team to lead them,” Cortez said, “whether that would be verbally or on the bench.”

Then he added another obligation.

“I also have to play good.”

Cortez finished with six points. He also delivered six assists against one turnover, a reminder that his difficult scoring night did not account for everything he contributed, or everything that went wrong.

His assessment reached further.

“All their (FEU) shots were going in, and then again, that shows our lack on defense, our playing without pride,” he said. “And maybe some of us are playing for ourselves.”

Those final words were as pointed as an arrowhead fresh from the quiver.

This is part of the responsibility that has shifted at La Salle. Mike Phillips is gone and off to Japan, his collegiate eligibility exhausted, leaving the Archers to replace the rebounding, interior defense, and repeated effort around which so much of their basketball could be organized.

The championship remains part of the program’s history. The work Phillips performed must now be done by someone else. Both on the court and in the locker room.

Before the season, coach Topex Robinson had already addressed the limits of that history. Following the team’s gathering with longtime patron Enrique Razon Jr. at Solaire, Robinson said in an exclusive: “What we’ve accomplished before doesn’t guarantee us anything this season.”

Under Robinson, La Salle reached three consecutive Finals, winning in 2023 and 2025. That record gives supporters reason to believe in the program’s capacity to respond. It also provides a standard against which an uncertain September will be measured.

The first three games have offered uneven evidence

La Salle escaped National University, 89–87, behind a 22-point debut from Joaquin Tovera, then fell to University of Santo Tomas, 80–75. Before Wednesday, our early-season report card had identified substantial rebounding deficits against both opponents.

FEU presented a different accounting. The Tamaraws’ advantage on the glass was only 41–38, and both teams committed 10 turnovers. But FEU made half its overall attempts, including 59.1 percent of shots inside the arc.

There were problems that could not be explained by the ball simply bouncing the other way.

Pablo, who led La Salle with 15 points and seven boards, agreed with Cortez’s call for more collective play.

“It’s not that our team had individual minds heading into this game,” Pablo said. “It’s more of just, I think everyone got pressured by the FEU defense. I think they really played hard, forcing us to get out of our system.”

A team can enter a game intending to play together and still struggle to do so when the familiar options disappear. For Pablo, responding to that pressure is itself something La Salle must learn collectively.

“Moving forward, I think we have to do a better job of how to handle pressure better as a team.”

Pablo currently leads the Green Archers in both scoring (13.7 PPG) and rebounding (5.7 RPG). However, the big man needs more from himself and his teammates, especially with DLSU currently ranking last in the league in rebounding at 35.7 RPG—below even UE’s 36.2 RPG.

As per our statistician Andre Bautista, Pablo also leads La Salle in PIE at 8.9%, meaning he accounts for 8.9% of the total statistical production in the games he has played. He has also been efficient offensively, posting a 65.7% true shooting percentage (TS%), which accounts for his two-point field goals, three-pointers, and free throws.

On the other hand, Cortez leads the team in assists with 5.3 per game, with most of his assists being finished by Pablo. However, Cortez is only averaging 9.3 points per game on a 37.2% TS%, while shooting just 10% from three. Cortez’s performance mirrors La Salle’s situation right now, hence his call for better production.

Both players acknowledged that the Archers are still working out their identity

Cortez spoke about new personnel, the difficulty of filling departed players’ roles, and the search for rhythm.

Pablo described an ongoing process, one that had not ended simply because the season had begun.

“There’s a lot of new guys and a lot of young guys on this team,” he said. “So our job as leaders is to lead them and guide them to how to play for each other, not for their own.”

For supporters who watched last season’s Cinderella-like run to the title, patience has a recent reward to point toward. La Salle entered the Season 88 Final Four as the fourth seed, eliminated top-ranked NU, and beat UP in a three-game championship slugfest that college basketball lore will never forget of.

Asked how much confidence he drew from that turnaround, Pablo established a boundary by returning to the present.

The confetti is no longer falling down from the sky. The locker room is no longer wet from celebration showers.

The hunters for the crown are prowling closer to the throne that looks more and more up for the taking, like vultures eyeing their prey.

“Last season was different.”

Pablo spoke of improved opponents, of treating every game as do-or-die, of working with the players and lineup La Salle has now.

“Every win is not guaranteed.”

Cortez was willing to accept the discomfort of learning early, even while acknowledging how much losing hurt. There would be film to watch and another opportunity to play better. The silence after FEU, however, offered no assurance about where any of that would lead.

But Cortez’s answer offered a place to begin. Asked how to turn around his swan song with the green and white, he had made himself accountable for more than just his next shot.