Ateneo humbles UE, repeats as UAAP champs

(Update)Pushed against the wall, Ateneo fought back and gave University of the East a taste of its own medicine as the Blue Eagles completed a masterful 71-58 humbling of the Red Warriors in Game 3 of the UAAP men’s basketball tournament finals Thursday before an overflow crowd at the Big Dome. The lopsided win was the defending champions Blue Eagles’ answer to the Warriors’ 88-68 Game 2 victory that forced the best-of-three title series into a rubber match. Ateneo won the opener, 78-71, last week. The current Ateneo team duplicated the feat of the Danny Francisco-led Blue Eagles who won back-to-back crowns in 1987 and 1988. Veteran big man Rabeh Al-Hussaini, who is playing his last year together with playmaker Jai Reyes and defense specialist Nonoy Baclao, capped his 21-point and 14-rebound Game 3 performance by claiming the Finals most valuable player trophy. It was another heartbreaking season for the Red Warriors, who were aiming to end a 24-year long title drought, as they failed to capitalize the momentum brought by their Final Four upset over the No. 2 seed Far Eastern University Tamaraws and their Game 2 rout of the Katipunan-based squad. After enjoying a 21-17 lead in the opening period, where Al-Hussaini scored 11 points, Ateneo used a 12-0 second quarter wind-up to slowly pull away and post a 40-25 halftime lead to silence the red-wearing side of the Araneta Coliseum. UE went scoreless for four minutes after do-it-all guard Paul Lee’s lay-up kept the Red Warriors within striking distance, 28-25, in the 6:06 mark of the second period. Back-to-back three pointers by Elmer Espiritu and Val Acuña ignited a 12-8 exchange as UE trimmed the deficit to 11, 48-37, midway in the third. That was the closest the Warriors could get as the Eagles, displaying championship poise, cruised along putting the game away by leading by as many as 20 points at 69-49 three minutes left in the game. And as the final buzzer sounded, almost half of the 18,851 fans - including sports patron Manny Pangilinan and former Blue Eagle Chris Tiu - celebrated with Norman Black and his current Ateneo crew. Lee paced the Warriors with 21 points and 12 rebounds while Elmer Espiritu added 16 and 10. Pari Llagas, who scored 19 markers in UE's Game 2 win, spent most of the time on the bench due to early foul trouble and only scored three. It was also a double celebration for Ateneo after the Eaglets earlier retained the juniors crown after scoring a 61-51 drubbing of the La Salle-Zobel Junior Archers in their own best-of-three title showdown. - Jon Perez, GMANews.TV