Showing a lot of end game poise down the stretch, the Blue Eagles escaped with a 65-62 victory over the Tamaraws to nail its third consecutive men’s basketball title. FEU finally showed up to play in Game 2 but Ateneo just had too much experience when it comes to playing in this type of atmosphere.
Congratulations to the Three-peat Champions!
History favors the Blue Eagles at this point. Since 2002, they are 3-1 in a championship series when they win Game 1.
For the FEU Tamaraws, their listless performance in Game 1 has been the subject of much heated scrutiny as of late. If they are really bent on silencing their critics and prove that their previous game was just a “bad hair day”, they should come out in Game 2 with the same intensity and confidence that enabled them to top the standings and sweep the Blue Eagles in the eliminations.
The task of FEU forcing a rubber match is quite daunting though; especially with the way Ateneo humiliated them in Game 1. That loss was definitely a big blow to their confidence and it would take a lot of sheer will and mental toughness to bounce back from that.
If the Tamaraws can’t get their act together in time, we can already start congratulating the Blue Eagles and welcome them to the exclusive UAAP Three-peat club.
The Ateneo Blue Eagles flexed their muscles all game long yesterday as they pulverized the FEU Tamaraws 72-49 in Game 1 of the UAAP finals series. What a downer this game turned out to be. With all the hype of this game being shown on a mainstream channel, we expected a tightly contested match between the top two teams this season. It turned out to be snorefest.
Ateneo had their guns blazing right from the opening quarter where they erected a 26-8 lead and never looked back. FEU didn’t know what hit them in this game as the Blue Eagles practically played perfectly on both ends. The Tamaraws’ inexperience in a championship series was exposed here.
The defending champions will most likely finish it this Thursday unless FEU will continue to play like a lost calf. Let’s see if they can bounce back from this humiliating setback and at least make this an interesting series.
The UAAP Season 73 finals begins this weekend, unfortunately for us it doesn’t involve our Green Archers. The FEU Tamaraws, which topped the eliminations, take on 2nd placer and 2-time defending champion Ateneo in a best of 3 series.
You can now throw away the stats and records. When the UAAP men’s basketball title is on the line, it all boils down to who wants it more. One team is ready to cement their place in the record books as a dynasty while the other is hoping to finally fulfill their promise after years of disappointment.
FEU may have defeated Ateneo twice in the eliminations but I’ll still give the Blue Eagles the edge in this series because of their experience of playing in a championship setting. Despite losing their top 3 players from last season, the defending champions have proven time and again that they can rise up to the challenge and get the job done when it counts the most. When their game is clicking, they are a very hard team to beat. And their game is premised more on team play, which reduces the reliance on individual performance in contrast to FEU, which leans heavily on the individual talents of its players line MVP RR Garcia, ROY Romeo, and frontliners Ramos and Cervantes. Ateneo’s veterans Salamat, Long, Buenafe, Salva and Monfort expected to lead the team. Ateneo’s game strategy is similar to ours in that they rely on their defense more than their ability to outshoot the opponents to win games. FEU, on the other hand, is a high scoring squad which uses its superior firepower to win.
For the Tamaraws, their ability to win in big games remains suspect. In last year’s final four, they blew a twice-to-beat advantage to UE. This year, it had to take a grueling overtime win over the Green Archers to reach the finals. FEU also lost in the finals of both the PCCL and the Fil-Oil Flying V Preseason tournaments in between seasons. In the last 3 years, FEU has underperformed despite having very strong lineups because of internal issues. This year, there were no apparent internal rifts, and the team has shown some grit in coming from behind twice to edge our Archers. However, our ability to give them a close match will have been carefully studied by the Blue Eagle braintrust.
The last time these two teams clashed in the finals was in 2003 when the Tamaraws overwhelmingly swept the Blue Eagles and denied them the back-to-back. Being the last team (on record only folks) to win a triple-crown, can FEU thwart Ateneo’s attempt to achieve a similar feat? The scouting and strategies of both will be exposed on center stage. Let’s see who can execute better.
It sure sucks not to be in the finals again. Nevertheless I bet many of us would still be interested on the outcome of this championship match. Let’s enjoy the show.
Fearless forecast: Ateneo in 2; FEU in 3
This pic says it all! The Lady Spikers have already put this recently concluded season behind them and will look forward to a more fruitful campaign next year. This was taken during their thanksgiving dinner hours after last Saturday’s game.
The team will remain intact for next season as most of the seniors still have one year of eligibility left. This of course is assuming that they decide to return for another tour of duty. The future looks bright for our Lady Spikers and even though they were not able to defend the crown this year, they still gave us one helluva performance. And for that we thank you Ladies.
Enjoy this clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz8c6FXyRys
Photo courtesy of Paula Andrea Marie Puri - Archerpride.com
The Lady Booters are back being the queens of UAAP football.
The team reclaimed the crown earlier today as they defeated UST 1-0.This time around, they made sure that there will be no repeat of that crushing setback they had against the very same time where they squandered a twice-to-beat advantage. It sure seemed like history would repeat itself as UST won the initial match of the series last Thursday. But despite a depleted line-up, the Lady Booters showed today that they were the hungrier team.
Thus ends the Lady Booters’ quest to once again regain supremacy after all the disappointments they went through for the past three years after scoring a 4-peat in 2006.
Kudos to Coach Hans Smit and the girls!
The Lady Spikers failed to repeat as champions as they fell to a resurgent UST in 4 sets, 18-25, 14-25, 25-16, 15-25. Led by skipper Stephanie Mercado, the team put up a valiant stand but fell prey to the taller and more experienced UST team.
La Salle took the first point of the match, but that was the only time they would taste the lead in the opening set. Although the Lady Spikers managed to limit their errors to 7, the same number as UST, poor reception resulted in less points on the attacks, 5 to UST’s 14. Our team’s spikes were either partially blocked or easily retrieved. Blocking was not as effective at the start, allowing UST to build their momentum and confidence as their attacks penetrated our net defenses. Trailing at 10-12, UST scored on 3 spikes and an error by Gohing to lead at the 2nd technical timeout. The Lady Spikers pulled to within 16-19 before UST went to their powerful hitters to take the first set.
The 2nd set started off on a positive note, with the team taking the lead up to the first technical timout at 8-7. However, unforced errors from our service as well as a couple of errant spikes allowed UST to take the lead, 8-11 forcing Coach Ramil to call for time and advise the players to slow things down. He also fielded Cerveza, Yeung, Gumabao, and Diego in an effort to break the lethargic play of our team, to no avail. Uncertainty and a curious loss of concentration told on the team, as they yielded the second set 14-25. In this set, UST exploited a small weakness whenever our setter Martinez was in the frontline as they shifted the ball to her side and used their height advantage to power their shots over her. With momentum on their side, UST looked to sweep the Lady Spikers.
It’s like déjà vu all over again in the Women’s Football finals as the Lady Booters were not able to close out the series in Game 1, losing to UST 2-0.
Yesterday’s setbak brings to mind last year’s finals between the same two teams as La Salle squandered a twice-to-beat edge to UST to stop the Lady Booters from winning their first football crown since completing a rare four-peat in 2006.
Perhaps the biggest blow to the Lady Booters in this championship series is the loss of ace goal keeper Haya Ibarra. She injured her anterior cruciate ligament after the double round eliminations.
Without Ibarra, UST relied on top striker Marianne Narciso to deliver the killer blows as she scored all of the two goals in the match.
The winner-take-all match is scheduled this Sunday, 9AM at the ADMU field.
More football action photos HERE
I thought our floor defense was better than it was against UST in that second round loss. However, it was in the blocking where our team was not so consistent. Although we did have our share of offensive blocks (against Santiago whose quick plays were blocked a number of times, Banaticla who was blocked on successive plays), the defensive wall put up by our net blockers was not as solid due to the variety of sets employed by UST. Recognizing that our net defenders are very effective in close quarters, Dimaculangan would set up her spikers a foot or two away from the net, and this gave them better angles to target gaps or avoid our blockers.
Carmel Garbin showed that she is a worthy successor to Kaye when Kaye plays our her eligibility, but her lack of match play showed. Yup, Joanne was not able to score too much on blocks. The players will also have to improve communication and teamwork, particularly since UST likes to target the gap between the back line defenders, and the players sometimes pause or hesitate in retrieving the ball because a teammate is close by. This hesitancy cost us several points, particularly in the 4th set when we had a chance to rally at 19-21, and we dropped 2 consecutive points because of this type of error.
The Lady Spikers dropped game 1 of the best-of-three finals series against UST today in 4 sets – 26-24, 23-25, 16-25, and 21-25. The team lapsed into uncharacteristic errors against a tall and experienced UST team, and they now must take the second game on Saturday, February 27 if they want to retain the championship they won last year at the expense of FEU.
Setter Kaye Martinez was used sparingly because of a shoulder injury she suffered during the final 4 match against Adamson over the weekend, and this told on the fluidity of the Lady Spikers’ offense as backup setter Carmel Garbin wasn’t as precise in setting up our attackers. The variety in attack was also not as sharp, allowing the UST defense to set up their defense against our individual attackers.
Maybe it was the championship pressure, but the team lost two points when trailing at 19-21 in the 4th set because the ball dropped between two players, either of whom could have easily retrieved the ball. This kind of miscue occurred a few times during the match, robbing the team of the opportunity to score and giving UST some breathing room.
