Here's the continuation of my last post......Couple of weeks have passed after the victorious Cheerdance competition, the UAAP Basketball Finals seemed to be the next sought-after contest. Why not, the fact that the rival schools La Salle and Ateneo will fight against the championship title makes it a must-see match. Yeah....you heard me right, the rivalry will live once again after six long years in the heart of Araneta Coliseum. No doubt, bunch of respective supporters from the two universities wearing blue and green would fill the entire Araneta. It always happened everytime the two has a match, and it happened on the first game of the Finals last Monday, September 22.
Lasallians and Atenians crowded the Araneta, they're wearing shirts colored with their respective school's colors-either blue or green...as anticipated. Just a recap, for this entire season's elimination rounds, La Salle didn't manage to grab a win from the two matches against Ateneo. That fact would just aggravate the La Salle's hunger to win over Ateneo, but as I watched the game, as usual on TV, it didn't turned out to be that way. La Salle's fighting spirit is kinda low that they got intimidated by Ateneo's defense tactics. DLSU was less aggressive primarily because of ADMU's awesome defense. Blue-shirted players properly guarded the green-shirted ones, giving Maierhofer and Casio a hard time to shoot their goals. Casio is well-guarded by the eagles that he seldom throw his signature 3-point shots. On the other side, with excellent defense combined with fast-paced plays and points from Al-Hussaini, no doubt that Ateneo won the first game, giving them their 50% chance to snatch the title from the defending La Salle and the Archers need to be at their 200% on the second deciding game. It was plainly a game of high defense. Sometimes, defense can really won a match, Game 1 is a proof of that.
Unlike the first game, Game 2 was an extremely emotional one. Not the kind that would touch your sensitive heart to the point that would make you cry a river. The dominating emotion shown was primarily wrath, one of the seven deadly sins. The match was like a picture depicting a battle between hot-headed players, the one who gets more pissed-off wins. Player teasing the opponent's supporters, fans booing their rival school's players, player mocking a player of the other team, audience cheering louder than the opponent's cheer, player questioning the referee's call, coach confronting the referee about the call.....these are just some of the scenarios you could see on the game. You can't really avoid having this type of match especially if it's as crucial as this. Everyone was so emotional. Everyone's temper is at it's peak.....maybe above it's peak.?
The game starts with a call that the MVP Al-Hussaini has committed an offensive foul, which was immediately questioned by the player himself and coach Norman Black. After few plays, the referee again called a foul against the MVP, making his second foul on just the first quarter of the match. That's when Black threw his ID frustrated and do some talk to the official....whewww....What a flaring atmosphere the Aranet had that day!..as if I'm feeling the intense heat coming from our TV.....Al-Hussaini left the court because of early foul trouble....Eagles haven't earned a point yet for early part of first quarter, giving the Archers the advantage......but suddenly, La Salle began commiting fouls and some technicals were called against them....giving Ateneo the opportunity to tie the score. .....Though it was a MVP-less team, the Eagles somehow manage to surpass the Archer's points, making them ahead by a small lead. Ateneo's awesome defense make the La Salle's Maierhoffer and Casio a hard time to gain some score.......while Ateneo's Tiu, Baclao and Rookie of the Year Buenafe keep on collecting some points till their lead grows greater than 10............I think in 3rd quarter Ateneo continue to pull away from La Salle and Taft-based cagers are having a difficult time to chase the eagles's score as the referee begin calling foul against Casio and Maierhoffer. There was no quiet time in the match. Correct me if I'm wrong, I believed it was in the 4th quarter where Maierhoffer was forced to leave the court due to some technicalities. He allegedly point a "dirty finger" sign to someone, which is not clearly viewed in the 'replay'......It's really hard to see if he really did that gesture or not....the tape's too fuzzy but still the committee decided to take him out of the game. He then leaves the match disappointed...feeling that he lose the chance of helping his team defend their title. The match has to go on...and so it did. Ateneo brought back their MVP and grabbed the chance to take a bigger lead. The sizzling hot match finally ended. Ateneo has managed to snatch the Championship title from their rivals......giving them a time to party while leaving the La Salle grieving from their loss and having their eyes scorching to take their sweet vengeance next year.
Let's see what would happen next season..Will Ateneo has the capability to defend their title against their rival and sweep them again? or Will La Salle finally take the sweetest revenge from Ateneo?
PS
or will UP finally get to the top of team standings sweeping both La Salle and Ateneo?....is this a silly joke or what?..........that would never happen......ever!
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